


I want to hate you but I can't

by byunnieyeol



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan is Whipped, M/M, Minor Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:55:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21902605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byunnieyeol/pseuds/byunnieyeol
Summary: "Lee Donghyuck?!""Oh, long time no see, Huang Renjun.""Oh my god, you've got to be kidding me."
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 101
Collections: ’00 FIC FEST: ROUND ONE





	I want to hate you but I can't

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #00189
> 
> I love you all and I'm sorry for the prompter if this is not what you're expecting, I'm really trying my best I swear /cries/  
> And lastly, hope you enjoy!

The bell just rang five minutes ago but the cafeteria was already so packed with sounds of people either talking with their friends or the sound of metal chopsticks against metal trays. Renjun sat on the furthest table in the cafeteria with his tray already half empty and his eyes were wandering everywhere.

“Injun-ah!”

A voice calling his name startled him from his thoughts. He turned his head towards the source of the voice. A smile suddenly bloomed on his face.

“Hey.”

“Don’t hey me. Why did you leave me? I told you to wait for me,” Jaemin pouted, taking a seat across him

Renjun furrowed his eyebrows, “I thought you told me to go first because Mr. Kim called you to talk about something?” He said, feeling confused.

“Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot,” he grinned.

“It’s fine. Why did Mr. Kim called you anyway?” Renjun says as he scoops up a spoonful of rice into his mouth

“Ah, it’s just about the art festival our school would probably hold again this year. I don’t know why he called me instead of Hyunjin though. He’s our student council president anyway,” Jaemin pouted then started eating his lunch.

Renjun just nodded his head. Not really understanding about all of that stuff. Jaemin is a member of the student council. Though he’s only a member without any high positions like Hyunjin does, Renjun could understand why Mr. Kim called him in instead of Hyunjin. That kid was always busy with his basketball club that sometimes he rarely attends school and instead went on tournaments with his club.

“Renjun-ah!”

Another voice startled Renjun from his thoughts, again. He looked up and was met with a bright Yangyang skipping his way to his and Jaemin’s table.

“Yangyang! What’s up?” Jaemin greeted him as he slides next to Jaemin

These two boys were always too good to be next to each other. The amount of noise Renjun might hear right now was already giving him a headache.

“Nothing. I just wanted to meet my fellow Chinese here. What are you doing anyway?” Yangyang answered, taking a sip of his choco milk.

Renjun took a sip of his water then answered, “If us eating our lunch isn’t that visible to you then not much. Jaemin just told me about the probability of this year’s art festival,” he said then put another piece of meat inside his mouth.

Yangyang’s eyes turned even brighter at the mention of the art festival. He loves the arts and that festival has been his favorite ever since he transferred here, though it had not been that long.

“Well, if that’s the case, then I got something for you two. Especially you, Renjun,” Yangyang said with a mischievous smile. Another look of confusion crossed Renjun’s face.

“I don’t like the look on your face, Yang. What is it?” Renjun continued eating his almost empty lunch, waiting for Yangyang to answer his question.

“You know, I heard a rumor that you might be getting a new member for your music club.”

“New member? Where did you hear that?” Curiosity struck in him.

“Yeah! I accidentally overheard those girls talking about it. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but you know how loud they are.”

“Are you sure?” This time Jaemin is the one who asked. He knew how much burden Renjun had by being the president of the music club and was trying his best to keep that club alive ever since he got appointed.

“Well, it’s just a rumor. Don’t think much about it. But if I remember correctly, they mentioned a name though. Probably the person who thought of joining the music club,” Yangyang said while eating his bread.

Renjun’s eyebrows furrowed, “Who?”

“Umm, I think it’s Haechan, Lee Haechan. A kid from the vocal major like you too, I don’t know from which class he is in but seeing from your expression, he must not be from your class,” Yangyang said.

“Yeah, no one from our class is named Lee Haechan. I remember every one of them. There is only like five Lee’s in our class. Two males and three females, and none of them is named Lee Haechan,” Jaemin answered.

“Well, it’s for you to find out and for me to find more gossip to spread. See you guys later!” Yangyang rose from his seat right after the bell rang, signaling that lunch break was over.

“Come on, Jun! Don’t think much about it. I don’t need you to make yourself way more stressed than you already are,” Jaemin said while telling Renjun to get up from his seat.

“I’m not. I’m just tired. I didn’t get enough sleep last night because of our assignment,” Renjun smiled while walking with Jaemin to their classroom.

“Well, I’m going to make sure you sleep early today!”

***

The day went by just like that. It was almost five when the two of them arrived at Renjun’s apartment. It was Friday and since tomorrow was the weekend, Jaemin decided to sleep over at Renjun’s. They took turns every two weeks. But most of the time, Jaemin would make Renjun let him sleep over even though it was his turn that week. He said something along the line about having more privacy in Renjun’s apartment because Renjun lives alone and no one would probably disturb them.

“You already brought your clothes?” Renjun asked while putting their shoes inside the shoe rack.

“Yeah, I already told mom to. Too lazy to go back home just to get my stuff and come back here. Your place and mine are like on the opposite sides of the world,” Jaemin said while throwing himself onto the couch.

“Says you who is most likely to sprint over to my place if I said I needed someone to talk to in the middle of the night,” Renjun teased the younger then went to the kitchen, “What do you want to drink?”

“Anything is fine. And don’t blame me for being such a good friend that I get worried about you most of them time because you are always alone in this apartment,” he said while playing with his phone.

Renjun brought two glasses of orange juice over and put it on the table in front of them. Renjun took off his blazer then tossed it on the couch across them.

“Well, don’t blame me either for living here alone.”

Jaemin just rolled his eyes at Renjun’s answer. He then drank the orange juice Renjun brought and turned on the TV.

“Hey, Jun,” Jaemin said with his eyes fixed on the TV.

Renjun turned his head over, waiting for Jaemin to continue his words.

“Next Saturday is your birthday, right? Do you plan to hold a birthday party?” Jaemin asked then moved his eyes over to Renjun who was still looking at him.

“I don’t think so. Too tired to hold those and too tired to clean the mess after,” he said while smiling then turned his head back to the TV. A whine from Jaemin could be heard.

“But why? You’re going to get your soulmate’s name too next Saturday! Aren’t you excited?” A happy look suddenly showed up.

Renjun looked down to his wrist. He traces a rectangle with his thumb.

“Well, I am excited about my soulmate's name but the party is just too much for me. I’ll be too tired to clean the mess after the party is over,” Renjun said, turning his head back to Jaemin.

“I will help you!!” Jaemin said, a little overexcited for his being. Renjun chuckled.

“You? Helping me? Clean the house? You are most likely to be knocked over when the party's over, Jaem, you know that,” a smile found its way to Renjun’s lips.

Jaemin pouted, “Fine! Are you really not going to hold a party though?” He still asked.

“Hmm, let me think about it. I’ll tell you the answer later,” Renjun got up from his seat and went inside his bedroom. “Take a shower, Jaem, you smell.”

“Hey!”

***

It was almost 10 when they were laying next to each other, facing the ceiling, feeling full after eating the dinner Jaemin cooked. It’s been 10 minutes since they’ve stayed at the same position and none of them wanted to start a conversation. The silence was just too nice to let go.

Jaemin then turned his body to face Renjun, making him lie on his side. He stared at Renjun for a good minute before Renjun started glaring at him.

“What are you looking at?” he asked.

Jaemin just shook his head, “You know, usually you look ugly but let me just say this one time, do you know how beautiful you are, Huang Renjun?” Renjun got a little taken aback by the statement but then sent a disgusted look at Jaemin. “No homo though,” He continued while chuckling.

Renjun looked at Jaemin in disbelief, “I don’t know if you are being serious or not right now,” he said. “But also, what the fuck do you mean I look ugly?” He slapped Jaemin’s shoulder.

“Oi! That hurt!” Jaemin cries. “I am being serious though,” He pouted while changed his position to sit, followed suit by Renjun.

Renjun looked like he was one second away from murdering Jaemin. Jaemin rubbed the place Renjun just hit him, then looked at Renjun with a sly smile.

“I just wanted to compliment you though but not gonna lie, you look ugly when you just wake up in the morning,” Jaemin said, laughing at Renjun’s annoyed face.

“Also, I just suddenly thought about how you’re gonna have your soulmate's name in like less than a week,” He started. “Who do you think is this damned person that’s gonna be your soulmate?” A cheeky smile then found its way to Jaemin’s lips followed by an angry Renjun hitting him with a pillow.

“What do you mean damned?! Do you think they’re not lucky to have me as their soulmate, huh?!” Renjun kept hitting Jaemin with the pillow and ended up chasing him around the room ‘cause Jaemin just decided it was the right time to start an exercise.

Renjun keep chasing Jaemin around the room then pushed Jaemin to his bed and threw his pillow to his face which Jaemin successfully dodged, making Renjun scoff at him when he saw Na Jaemin smiling up at him.

“That’s not what I meant, why are you so worked up,” Jaemin said while trying to catch his breath then stand up and plopped his butt on Renjun’s carpet.

“What do you mean then?” he asked.

“Nothing, I said what I said.”

“What the..? You said it’s not what you meant and now what do you mean by you said what you said?!” Renjun said while hitting Jaemin’s arm, leaving a big red mark on his skin.

“Aw! Why’d you do that? It hurts,” Jaemin pouted, caressing the part where Renjun just hit him.

“You deserved it,” Renjun said while crossing his arms.

“You meanie,” Jaemin said, still pouting, “Anyway! Do you want to play something? I’m bored, hehe,” Jaemin then reached over for Renjun’s remote to turn on his TV and playstation.

“You want to play? I thought you were gonna make sure I was going to sleep early tonight,” Renjun said while scooting over to open his box full of his playstation’s CDs.

“Screw that, you don’t need them anyway, let’s just play all night!” He said while looking at the CD Renjun just put in.

“I’m still wondering, how did I befriend you in the first place,” Renjun said, standing up to check if his front door was locked or not.

“It’s because you love me! And I’m cute!” A scream could be heard from his room and Renjun just shook his head.

“That is not even a reason.”

***

It was past 10 am when Renjun set his foot into the kitchen. He walked past the dining table to the refrigerator and opened it to search for something he could cook.

“Injun-ah! What are you doing?” Jaemin walked out of their room while rubbing his eyes.

“Looking for something we could eat. What time did we go to sleep last night anyway? I think I got a headache because of it,” Renjun sighed then threw some vegetables on the table. “Does ramyun sound okay to you?”

“Yea, that’s fine. I think it was around 4 am,” Jaemin plopped himself on the chair.

“No wonder. I’m gonna shower first. Could you cut some of the vegetables there?”

“Yea sure.”

“Wash your face first or you’re going to hurt yourself if you aren't focused.”

“Yes, mom!”

Renjun rolled his eyes at Jaemin then walked to the bathroom. After a few minutes inside, Renjun walked out already in his casual outfit and a towel on top of his head. Renjun saw Jaemin was holding his phone and called him.

“Your mom left you a message, here,” said Jaemin, handing the phone back to Renjun then heading out.

Renjun read his mom’s message then type his reply and put his phone back to his bedside table. He walked out and saw no one, suspecting that Jaemin already in the bathroom, Renjun continued Jaemin’s work.

***  
It was Monday and Renjun looked like he was about to faint because of how pale his face was. He put both his hands inside his pockets and earphones in both of his ears. It was only 7:30 but the sun was already shining so bright up there. Though it didn’t feel hot at all because winter was just about to end.

Renjun set his feet inside the almost full classroom, putting his bag on his table then took off his earphones. The noise he didn’t hear when he walked in started to fill his ears. He looked around and found Hyunjin, who didn’t attend school last week, and decided to approach him.

“Hyunjin-ah!” Renjun called. Hyunjin turned his head to Renjun walking to him with a smile.

“Hey! How are you? We didn’t get to talk at all last week because of me ditching school,” he grinned. 

Renjun laughed then said, “It’s fine. I just wanted to ask; did Jaemin tell you about the art fest our school will hold again this year?” He asked.

“Oh yeah, he told me that yesterday and we decided to hold a meeting today after school,” he smiled. Renjun just nodded his head.

“Good morning ladies’ and gentlemen’!” Just when Renjun walked back to his seat, Jaemin walked in with his bright smile, greeting everyone in the class. And so, the bell rang and their homeroom teacher walked in, starting the class.

***  
The bell rang, signalling the school day was finally over. Renjun tidied his table and split his stuff between the one he would bring home and the one he would put inside his locker.

“Renjun-ah, I’m going to go first, Hyunjin is already waiting for me. See you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah! Good luck on your meeting!” Jaemin just nodded his head then proceeded to follow Hyunjin who was waiting for him outside.

Renjun put half of his stuff inside his locker then locked it and walked outside his classroom and to the music club room. He greeted other students who said hi to him in the hallway. A few he doesn’t know and the other few were the people who used to confess their love to Jaemin but ended up getting rejected because Jaemin wanted to wait for his soulmate without trying to start a relationship with other people. How sweet, Renjun thought.

Just when he was about to open the door, someone tapped his shoulder. He was startled because he was thinking of what to say when he would meet the new member of the music club. Renjun turned his body and there was a girl smiling at him.

“Hey! Huang Renjun, right? My friend wants to join the music club but he didn’t get to fill in the form last time when the school held the club festival, so can he join the club now?” She asked, offering another smile to Renjun which the other smiled back to.

“Yeah, of course. Just come in and I will give your friend the form to join.”

“Thank you! And, oh! My name is Jeon Heejin, I’m a member of the music club too but I’m not really that active in the club as I am also a member of the student council, hehe,” she chuckled. Renjun just smiled at her and nodded.

“My friend is also a member of student council, so I understand your pain. Anyway, where is your friend? I’m about to meet the new member now,” Renjun said, pointing his thumb to the door.

“Ah! He’s on his way. Probably at the toilet right now. You should go in first, I’ll wait for my friend here!”

“Okay then. When your friend arrives, just go inside, okay?”

“Will do!”

Renjun just smiled and went inside. He was meeting with around 10-ish students inside. Could be a mix of the current member and the new one. He couldn’t really distinguish though he could recognize some of them as they were used to competing together last year. Renjun smiled at some of them. He put his bag down then faced the students.

“Alright, before anything, let me introduce myself. My name is Huang Renjun, yes, I’m not from Korea, I’m from China but have been living here since I was 5 years old. You can call me with the Chinese pronunciation which is Renjun or you could use the Korean one, Injun! Whichever fits best for you, I don’t really mind. Also, I’m in my second year now, a vocal major and all of you have probably guessed, I am this club leader or president. So, nice to meet you!”

Renjun smiled after saying his long impromptu introduction, quite satisfied with himself. The students in front of him gave him a round of applause, making his smile wider.

“Alright! Since I didn’t get to go to the club festivals since I was back at my hometown, I need to know, which of you are the new members of this club. Raise your hands if you are the new members!” Renjun said and half of them raised their hands. Renjun just nodded to himself and gestured them to lower their hands.

“Not as many as last year but it’s okay! We could work with whatever we have now.” Renjun smiled at them.

He then heard the door open and looked up to see Heejin smiling at him. He just nodded at her and then turned his body to take out a form. When he was about to open his folder, he heard gasps from behind him. He just sighed to himself.

 _“Now, who is this person Heejin brought to make the students go like that?”_ He thought.

“For Heejin’s friend, you could fill in this form first—” He got cut mid sentence when he saw Heejin’s friend and realized who it was. “Lee Donghyuck?!” Renjun shrieked.

Lee Donghyuck looked up and turned his head to Renjun. His eyes went big, clearly shocked. A small smile spread across his face.

“Oh, long time no see, Huang Renjun,” he smiled.

“Oh my god, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Renjun mumbled to himself.

“Oh? You know each other?” Heejin asked.

“Kinda, but I don’t know if he would say the same,” Donghyuck, or in this case, Haechan said.

“Actually, yes, we knew each other. He used to be my friend back in grade school,” Renjun said, trying to swallow the nervousness that suddenly arose.

“Used…?” Heejin mumbled.

“Well, anyway, you could fill in this form and you will officially be a club member. Please give it back to me after you have finished filling them in,” Renjun said then told them to take a seat, trying to calm himself down before continuing their activity.

“Okay! So, are all of you from the vocal major?”

***  
“Thank you for coming today! I wish we would work with each other well and I will look out for your ideas! Don’t forget to send them to my email, I will check them before our next club meeting. Be careful on your way home!” Rejun waved the new members goodbye before tidying his stuff.

He locked the club’s door and turned around. He jumped, shocked, to see Lee Donghyuck standing there with his bag on his shoulder.

“What are you doing here?’ Renjun asked. Donghyuck smiled at him.

“What do you think I’m doing? Of course I’m waiting for you,” he answered.

Renjun’s confused face must be so funny to Donghyuck that he chuckled when he saw Renjun’s face.

“Why? You don’t want me to wait for you? Or, you don’t want people to know you are friends with the famous Lee Haechan?” Donghyuck said.

“First of all, I thought we weren’t friends anymore. You hated me, that’s all I remember. Second, for why you changed your name?” Renjun asked while he started walking.

“That’s all in the past and I never said I hated you—” Donghyuck got cut off because Renjun suddenly turned to face him.

“Really? Never? I still remember clearly what you said back then, want me to recite it again for you? So that you will remember what you said to me?” Renjun put out a mocking smile.

Donghyuck frowned. A slight annoyance clearly showed on his face.

“No need to. I do remember, but as I said, it’s all in the past and if you wish to know, I didn’t say I hate you without any reason and you clearly don’t know that. You hurt me and that’s why I hated you,” Donghyuck walked past Renjun, leaving him behind in a confused state.

“What the hell was that? For what was he angry for? Isn’t it supposed to be me? He hurt me too,” Renjun mumbled to himself and then sighed.

***

Renjun threw his towel on his bed and took his phone before sitting himself down on his bed. His mind was still thinking about what Donghyuck said to him. What did he mean by Renjun hurting him? It was clearly the other way around and Renjun was the one who got hurt by him.

Renjun sighed and rubbed his face. He unlocked his phone with his face and the first thing that he saw was a message from Jaemin and a few other messages from his class’ group chat. Renjun opened the message and furrowed his eyebrows.

From: Najaem

_Hey_  
_Do you by any chance know anyone named Lee Haechan?_  
_He just asked for your number this evening_

Renjun widened his eyes in shock. For what reason did Donghyuck ask for his number from Jaemin? Renjun quickly sent a reply and it didn’t take a second for Jaemin to replied to him.

_Yeah, I gave it to him_  
_Who is he anyway?_

Renjun screamed in disbelief but also quite understanding why Jaemin would ask such thing because he didn’t know that Lee Haechan is Lee Donghyuck. Renjun only once told him about his childhood story that included telling him about Lee Donghyuck. Renjun pressed the call button and waited for Jaemin to pick up his call.

“Nana! Why did you give him my number?” Was the first thing Renjun said to him when he picked up his call. Renjun could feel Jaemin’s eyebrows furrowing at his sudden burst.

 _“Why? Do you hate him?”_ There was a pause before a gasp could be heard, _“Is he a murderer?”_ Renjun facepalmed at that.

“Nana,” he called.

_“Yea?”_

“Do you by any chance remember my story about Lee Donghyuck?” He asked, waiting for Jaemin’s answer because the other was silent at the other end.

There is a hum before Jaemin said, _“Is this about the Lee Donghyuck that left you without saying anything?”_

“You make it sound like I’m his lover or something but yes, that’s him,” Renjun said, pausing for a bit. “The Lee Haechan that asked you for my number this evening is the Lee Donghyuck I told you about.”

 _“What?”_ Jaemin screamed to the phone making Renjun hold his phone away from his ear.

“No need to scream but yeah, he changed his name for no reason and now people know him as Lee Haechan not Lee Donghyuck,” Renjun said.

_“B-but I never knew we had someone named Lee Haechan in this school.”_

“Me neither but didn’t you remember what Yangyang said about the new music club member he said last Friday?” Renjun paused, “He said the new member was Lee Haechan and we clearly didn’t know about him existing until like that moment. I just met him today because of the first meeting of the new members and he looked like he had been waiting to meet me for a while,” Renjun continued.

Renjun could hear Jaemin sighing from the other end. Renjun lied down and waited for Jaemin to say something. There’s a sound of stuff falling from the other end before he could hear Jaemin’s breath on the phone.

 _“I don’t know if I should tell you to feel grateful or not, ‘cause he’s clearly your long lost best friend but he was also the one who left you the next day without telling you anything,”_ Renjun chuckled at that.

“Honestly, same. He looks the same but also not. He has changed a lot in the past years and if I didn’t know him better I wouldn’t even recognize him,” Renjun said while putting his free hand behind his head, making it as a pillow.

Jaemin chuckled, _“Do you miss him though?”_ He asked.

Renjun fell silent at that. He seriously didn’t know how to feel. Whether he should feel sad or happy that he got to meet someone who used to mean everything to him.

“I don’t know, Jaem. It’s been so long and looking at him now, he looks happier,” Renjun eyes wandered to his empty ceiling. His mind went back to his childhood memories of him and Donghyuck playing together at their school.

“But he was an ass today,” Renjun said while pouting.

_“Please elaborate.”_

“Well, he said that I hurt him and he hated me because of that when clearly it was me that got hurt by him. Why was he the one who felt hurt?” Renjun said with an annoyed tone.

 _“You know, Jun, there is always more story to hear from someone. You might need to see the story from his end, then you can know why you and him ended up in that situation,”_ Jaemin said. Renjun thought of it for a while before a beep could be heard from his phone. He took a look at it and there was an unknown number messaging him.

“Hey, Na, I think Donghyuck just sent me a message,” he said.

_“Reply then.”_

“Are you sure?” He asked.

 _“Jun, you really need to try to fix your relationship with him. He used to be your closest friends after all,”_ Jaemin said. Renjun sighed at that and nodded, knowing clearly Jaemin couldn’t see that.

“If you say so then. I’ll hang up now, see you tomorrow.”

_“See ya!”_

Renjun pressed the end button and opened his messaging app. One unknown number was sending him a simple hi. Renjun contemplated whether to actually follow Jaemin’s advice or not before another message came in.

_I know you can see this_

Renjun widened his eyes at that, felt a little bit scared now to open the message. When he was about to ignore the message, a thud startled him and made him accidently open the message.

“Shit,” he whispered.

Renjun sighed and facepalmed himself. For why does his hands gotta slip like that and make him accidentally open the message. He thought for a bit before sending a reply.

“Who is this?” he typed. It was not even a second later before a bubble popped off on his screen.

_Your greatest nightmare_

Renjun mentally cringed at that before typing another reply.

“Didn’t know my nightmare could send a message”

_Oh, I’m your special kind of nightmare_  
_I could literally call you right now if you want_

“What the fuck,” Renjun murmured to himself before another beep came.

_But don’t worry, I won’t do that_  
_I don’t want to scare you_

The person then sent him a meme. Renjun chuckled in disbelief.

“Donghyuck really changed a lot,” He thought. He then typed another reply.

“Oh really?”

_Yeah!_  
_Aren’t you scared now?_  
_You must be!_  
_Or else…_

“Or else what?” he typed that too fast that he didn’t even realize the other person was still typing their reply.

_Ohh_  
_So you are curious, huh_

Renjun snorted at that.

“Nope. Not even a little bit”

_Are you sure?_

Renjun could literally hear Donghyuck’s voice by now. He rolled his eyes before sending another reply.

“Listen here, Donghyuck”  
“If u want to play with me, I won’t respond to that”  
“I would literally stop the conversation here”  
“And block ur number after”

The reply came fast, Renjun began to think that this person clearly didn’t have any other things to do than to bother him.

_How did u know I’m Donghyuck?_  
_I didn’t say my name though_  
_I didn’t even introduce myself_  
_Are you a psychic?_

Renjun snorted, “Is he being serious right now.”

“You are an idiot”  
“I’ll end this conversation now”  
“You should start to find other things to do”  
“Bye”

He put his phone down after seeing Donghyuck’s reply. He then slammed his phone to his bedside table and got up from his bed. He walked to his desk while grumbling.

“Who does he think he is?” He snorted.

The reply Donghyuck sent was, _“See you tomorrow then, pretty,”_ with a kissy face at the end.

***

It was almost eight when Renjun woke up that morning and he silently cursed himself for forgetting to turn on his alarm. He took a quick shower and changed into his uniform before running out of his apartment to the bus stop.

Renjun ran to the bus stop and hoped luck was on his side. He thanked God when he saw his usual bus had just arrived at the bus stop. He quickly ran inside and scanned his card before taking a seat at the back of the bus.

Renjun looked around him and his eyes stopped at one of the passengers arm. There was a name written on it, because the person was holding their hand up while playing with their phone. Renjun felt a little bit bad for seeing that as if he was intruding into something private.

He turned his head away from that person's arm but ended up seeing another person’s soulmate's name. _Park Chaewon_. He cursed himself silently then looked down at his own arm. The rectangle was still there, painfully empty. He caressed it before looking up when he heard someone screaming.

“Wait!”

He saw Donghyuck walking inside, out of breath. When he thought luck was on his side today, apparently they weren’t.

Donghyuck turned his head after he scanned his card and locked eyes with Renjun with a small smile on his face. Renjun immediately looked away when he saw Donghyuck walking towards him. He then took the empty space beside Renjun.

“Hey,” Donghyuck called him after sitting himself down. Renjun remained silent, clearly not in the mood to talk to anyone.

He could see Donghyuck pouting in his peripheral view before a sigh escaped him. Renjun turned his head over to see Donghyuck closing his eyes and leaning back.

Renjun quickly turned his head towards the window again when he saw Donghyuck’s eyes fluttering open. Donghyuck took out his phone and sighed when he saw the time.

“Looks like we’re both gonna get scolded today,” he said.

Renjun scoffed at him, “You think I don’t know?” He said in a low tone.

Donghyuck just raised his eyebrows at Renjun before putting his phone back in his pocket. He crossed his arms and looked to the front. The bus wasn’t really that packed but there were quite a few number of students who were probably late just like them.

“Why were you late today, though?” Donghyuck asked, clearly not caring about Renjun not wanting to talk to him.

There’s silence before Renjun let out a sigh. “I forgot to turn on my alarm last night,” he said.

Donghyuck looked at him, confused, “What time did you go to sleep last night?” Renjun furrowed his eyebrows at him, clearly not expecting Donghyuck to ask that.

“Since when did you care?” He snapped.

Donghyuck rolled his eyes before looking at Renjun in the eyes, “I have always cared, just so you know, since day one.” He looked back to the front, missing Renjun’s surprised face.

When Renjun was just about to reply to Donghyuck, the bus stopped, signalling that they have already arrived at their destination. Donghyuck got up first and turned to see Renjun not moving from his spot.

“Are you not going to school?” He asked, snapping Renjun back to his senses.

Renjun immediately got up and walked past Donghyuck who just shook his head in amusement at Renjun. Donghyuck followed behind Renjun and thanked the driver when he got off of the bus.

Renjun was already walking to their school, ignoring the whole existence of Lee Donghyuck, who was walking just a few steps behind him.

When they stepped into their school gates, the head of discipline was standing a few meters in front of them. Renjun cursed to himself and walked slowly to where she was standing.

“Huang Renjun? It’s new to see you arriving late,” she paused, then saw Donghyuck walking not too far away from Renjun. She furrowed her eyebrows . “Lee Haechan? Thought you would rather skip school than being late.”

Donghyuck looked at her and said, “I thought so too but then I remembered that maybe I should try to keep going to school even though I would be late.” She just nodded at his answer before giving them their first warning.

“I hope I don’t see you two again tomorrow. Also, try to arrive on time, yes, Lee Haechan?” She looked at Donghyuck in the eye and Donghyuck just nodded his head.

“Go to your classes now.”

The two of them then bowed their heads before proceeding to walk to their class. No one started any conversation since they separated ways. Donghyuck and Renjun’s classes were on different sides of the school although both of them were vocal majors.

Renjun knocked on the class’ door before going inside. His homeroom teacher looked at him, confused. Renjun just bowed at him and walked to his table.

“Hey,” Jaemin called him. “Why are you late?”

“Shut up, Jaem, I’ll tell you later.”

“Okay, no need to snap at me like that.”

Renjun just rolled his eyes and took out his books before proceeding to listen to the teacher explaining.

***

“Okay that’s all for today. I hope you don’t forget to hand in your assignment after school. Class dismissed,” the teacher walked out and the students immediately let out a sigh.

It was lunch break and Jaemin was waiting for Renjun to finish writing down his notes before walking to the canteen together. Jaemin just talked about how tired he was because of the assignment and the task Hyunjin had given him yesterday.

The both of them stood in line to get their food. After the both of them finished taking their food, they walked to an empty table they could find.

“So,” Jaemin started after they were seated, “What did Donghyuck send you last night?” He asked.

Renjun put down his chopsticks after putting a kimchi inside his mouth. He looked at Jaemin who stared at him in anticipation before swallowing the food.

“He pulled a trick on me and sent me a kissy emoji,” Renjun said. Jaemin let out a long ‘o’ before laughing at Renjun.

“I would love to see Donghyuck do that to you in person,” He said after he finished laughing. Renjun just glared at him before a voice startled the both of them.

“Did I just hear my name?” Donghyuck walked to their table with his tray in his hands and someone beside him.

Renjun just rolled his eyes when Donghyuck and his friend seated themselves down on their table. Making the both of them sitting face to face.

“Why are you sitting here? Isn’t there another table?” He said while staring into Donghyuck’s eyes.

“Well, if you see, the other tables are pretty much occupied right now, so I have no other choice but to sit with you and your friend,” he said.

Renjun glared Donghyuck before looking around and it was true, the other tables were pretty much occupied with more than two people. Renjun snorted then continued eating his lunch.

A small smile bloomed on Donghyuck’s face. He then started eating his lunch, ignoring the tension that was built by the both of them. When Donghyuck looked up, his eyes locked with Yangyang, who was standing in the middle of the canteen because he didn’t know where to sit.

Donghyuck waved his hand and Yangyang returned it while a big smile spread across his face.

“Yo, ma man Lee Haechan!” Yangyang fist bumped his hand with Donghyuck before sitting down. Renjun stared at him in shock.

“You already met him?” Renjun asked in a lower tone while Donghyuck looked at him, amused.

“Uh, yeah? I already told you last Friday and you know me, I never stop trying to meet new people,” he said while munching on his rice. “Also, Haechan is nice! And fun too,” he continued while smiling.

Renjun sighed and glared Donghyuck who was smiling at him and continued to eat his food. Meanwhile, Jaemin and Jeno were just glancing at each other awkwardly because of the tension between Renjun and Donghyuck.

After that, the five of them ate their lunch in silence. Donghyuck was the first one to break the silence when he finished his food. He then excused himself and his friend. He just smiled when Renjun looked at him.

“See you around, Hae!” Yangyang exclaimed while waving his hand.

Jaemin let out a sigh before turning his head to Renjun, “That was fucking intense! What the hell was that?!” He said.

“What’s intense?” Renjun asked, still focusing on his food. Yangyang just looked at the both of them in confusion.

“Did I miss something?” Yangyang asked.

“Oh! If you’d like to know, Haechan was Renjun’s old friend. They haven’t met since, wait, since when again, Jun?” Jaemin turned his head to Renjun who was about to drink his water.

“Elementary school,” he answered then drank his water.

“Yep, since that!” Jaemin said. “Don’t you feel the tension, Yang?” Jaemin asked Yangyang while staring at the boy. 

Yangyang looked at him before answering, “Uh, honestly, I didn’t feel anything,” Yangyang’s words got cut off when Jaemin started screaming in frustration.

“Was it only me then?” Jaemin asked. Yangyang just looked at him and then nodded his head. “Ugh, I hate this family,” he snorted.

“Excuse you, we are not a family,” Renjun said while getting up, followed by Yangyang then Jaemin.

“Of course we aren’t,” Jaemin said then walked past Renjun to the trash can.

Yangyang just looked at Renjun, confused. Renjun just shrugged at him before walking to the trash can.

The three of them then walked back to their classes. Yangyang bid them goodbye because his class was at the end of the hall. The two of them just waved at him before walking inside their class.

“Did you really not feel any tension at all?” Was the first thing Jaemin said when they were already seated.

Renjun looked at him weirdly before saying, “Drop it, Na.” He paused. “I thought you were interested in Donghyuck’s friend just then because you two were glancing at each other in silence,” he continued.

Jaemin scrunched up his face before hitting Renjun on his arm.

“That was so uncalled for,” Jaemin said before turning his back to Renjun.

“What the hell was that for? Yah! Na Jaemin!” Renjun shook Jaemin’s chair but Jaemin just ignored him.

“I’m not gonna talk to you, bye!”

Renjun just snorted and took out his phone when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

From : 이동혁

_Yo, do you have anything to do after class?_  
_Want to get an ice cream with me?_

“What does he want now,” Renjun sighed.

“What do you want,” he replied

_Thought you wouldn’t reply me_  
_Nothing, just wanted to get ice cream today_

“And?”  
“You could do that by yourself”  
“Or maybe ask that friend of yours”

It took around five minutes for Donghyuck to reply and got Renjun shocked because he was in the middle of the class and the teacher was literally in front of him. He then took out his phone and read the reply from Donghyuck.

_Jeno can’t_  
_He has practice after school_  
_I won’t even need to ask you if Jeno can you idiot_

Renjun rolled his eyes and typed out his reply fast and put his phone back inside his bag, not wanting to touch his phone during class.

“Fine”  
“Meet me at the gate after school ends”  
“You late, I would never consider anything you said anymore”

_Aye aye captain!_

***  
The bell just rang, indicating the end of school. Renjun sighed while tidying up his stuff. He still could not believe he had just accepted Donghyuck’s offer today. Renjun looked up when someone knocked on his table.

“Do you want to go back together?” Jaemin asked him while crossing his hands on the table.

Renjun shook his head while pouting, making Jaemin look at him, confused.

“Can’t. I have something with Donghyuck today,” another sigh left his mouth. A sly smile spread across Jaemin’s face making Renjun furrow his eyebrows.

“Did I just hear you have a date with Lee Donghyuck?” 

Renjun’s eyes went big when that sentence left Jaemin’s mouth. He slapped Jaemin’s arm hard until the poor boy let out a loud yelp and curled his lips.

“It’s not a date, okay? I just accepted his offer to accompany him to get some ice cream,” Renjun continued putting his stuff inside his bag and immediately stood up when he finished.

Jaemin followed him still with his lips pouted. Renjun just looked at him without any interest and when the two almost got to the front gate, Renjun stopped and turned to Jaemin.

“You don’t have any meetings today with the student council?” He asked. Jaemin just shook his head and Renjun just nodded before continued walking.

Renjun could see Donghyuck standing at the gate, playing with his phone. He looked good from afar with his black hoodie. Renjun suddenly shook his head when he suddenly felt like his cheeks were heating up because of the thought.

Donghyuck looked up when he felt someone walking towards him. His smile suddenly appeared and made Renjun feel even more weird.

“Hey,” Donghyuck called. Renjun just nodded at him before turning to Jaemin who was still standing beside him.

Jaemin caught the signal and suddenly smiled at the two. He started walking away before turning back and said, “Enjoy your date!” making Renjun curse under his breath and a laugh left Donghyuck’s mouth.

Donghyuck turned to Renjun who was still looking at Jaemin’s direction like it could kill people. The corner of his lips went up and Renjun looked at him.

“Shall we start our date now?” He asked, getting a slap from Renjun.

“Whatever,” he said then started walking, leaving Donghyuck behind who was still shaking his head at Renjun’s behaviour.

“He really is unpredictable,” Donghyuck said to himself.

Renjun turned back and screamed, “Do you want to go or not?!” making Donghyuck giggle and started running at him.

“Are you that excited for our date?” Donghyuck asked, getting a glare from Renjun, making him laugh again.“You are so cute.”

“Whatever.”

***

“Thank you for the food,” Donghyuck said to the cashier before leaving the ice cream parlor.

The both of them just finished ordering their ice cream and were now on their way back to their homes. Renjun ordered a vanilla ice cream and Donghyuck ordered strawberry vanilla.

Renjun smiled while licking his ice cream. He looked happier than when they were walking to the ice cream parlor. Donghyuck turned his head to Renjun who was happily eating his ice cream. A smile appeared on his face. He took out his phone and silently took a picture of Renjun happily eating his ice cream, forgetting that his phone made a clicking sound when taking pictures. Renjun turned his head when he heard the sound.

“What are you doing?” He asked, seeing Donghyuck looking at his phone while smiling.

Donghyuck showed the picture to Renjun which made Renjun shocked when he saw himself on the boy’s screen.

“You took a picture of me?” He screamed while hitting Donghyuck’s arm.

“Why are you hitting me? It’s a good picture though, at least I didn’t take any ugly pictures of you,” Donghyuck said while still looking at his phone. “I’m gonna make this my phone wallpaper,” he suddenly said making Renjun hit his arm harder.

“For why?” he shrieks. 

Donghyuck just shrugged before answering while smiling, “Because you are cute, that’s why,” he said.

Renjun looked at him in disbelief, “You’ve been saying that from the start. I don’t even know if you are just saying that to make me pissed or something,” he said then went back to focusing on his ice cream.

A hum could be heard from Donghyuck before he answered, “Actually, I have always found you cute, from the very start. To me, you are always cute.” 

Renjun looked at Donghyuck, who was now focused on his ice cream.

“Oh.”

***  
The following week was just so-so and it was mostly just Renjun being busy with his homework, his duty as the music club leader and trying to ignore the existence of Lee Donghyuck at most.

It was Friday and Renjun could not hide his happiness that at least he wouldn’t need to see Donghyuck's face for the rest of the weekend. Jaemin even asked him when their last class ended as to why there was like invisible flowers circling around Renjun.

His answer was, “Nothing, I’m just happy.”

Jaemin shook his head and both of them walked out of the class with a smiling Renjun. When they walked to the bus stop, Jaemin suddenly remembered something and clapped his hands, startling Renjun.

“I just remembered! Tomorrow is your birthday, right?” Jaemin asked, beaming. Renjun looked at him, confused, and waited for the boy to continue his sentence.

“Have you already made your mind about the party?” Jaemin asked.

Renjun let out an ‘ahh’ when he heard Jaemin’s question, clearly forgetting about their talk from last week. Renjun thought of it for a second before shaking his head and that answer clearly wasn’t what Jaemin wanted to hear.

“Ahh, why,” he whined. “I thought you would say yes because you said you would have thought about it last week,” he continued. Renjun just laughed at a pouty Jaemin.

They walked inside the bus when their bus came to the bus stop. After finding a seat, Renjun answered Jaemin’s whining.

“I just thought it would be too much and I don’t think I could afford to hold a party for that,” he said. Jaemin’s pout still visible and it made Renjun laugh again. “I’m the one whose having a birthday here not you, why are you being the sulky one,” he said.

“Nothing, I just wanted to take all your money to buy the most fancy stuff and cakes so that you would go broke in the middle of the month,” he said giving Renjun an innocent smile. Renjun’s mouth went open, leaving him speechless at Jaemin’s words.

“You really want to take all my money for that only, huh?” He said, earning a nod from Jaemin who still had the innocent look. Renjun let out a scoff before shaking his head.

“You really are unbelievable,” he said. Jaemin let out a small laugh before silence took over. 

Both of them were focused with the view outside before Jaemin turned his head to Renjun. He hit Renjun’s thigh, making Renjun startled and turned to Jaemin with a confused face.

“I can’t sleep over at yours tonight,” he started while pouting.

Renjun just nodded at him and said, “That’s okay.” Jaemin still looked guilty, making Renjun chuckle.

“I said it’s okay. I’ll be fine. I’ll call you if anything happens,” Renjun said, earning a small nod from Jaemin.

The rest of the road was filled with silence as both of them were busy with their own thoughts. Renjun became the first one to get off the bus and said his goodbye to Jaemin and waited until the bus drove away.

Renjun walked inside his apartment lobby and went inside the lift. He pressed for his floor number and waited. When the lift opened, he walked out and went straight to his unit.

Renjun pressed his unit’s password and walked inside when the door opened. He put his shoes inside the shoe rack and turned on the living room light. Renjun tossed himself onto the couch and let out a sigh.

“Another night alone.”

Renjun stayed in that position for five minutes before standing up and walked to his bathroom. It took him 20 minutes to take a shower before walking out already in his casual outfit. He walked to the kitchen and start to make himself some food for dinner.

He cooked a simple kimchi fried rice and took it to the dining table when he finished. Renjun ate his food while watching a variety show on his tv. His laugh could be heard once in a while inside the room. When he finished his food, Renjun quickly put it on the sink and started washing them.

Renjun took out his phone after finishing washing the utensils he used to cook and eat. He saw a few messages from his class group chat and his mom. No sign of Donghyuck or Jaemin sending any message to him. He replied to his mom before plopping himself on his bed.

Renjun opened his social media and saw some of his classmates' updates. It looked like they went on a short trip to Busan. Renjun just scrolled down his social media before a post made by one of his close friends from China made him stopped scrolling.

There are two photos attached on the post where one of them had two arms crossing each other and the other was of two people hugging. Renjun saw his friend’s arm had their soulmate name and so did their soulmate. He unconsciously glared at his arm, where the empty rectangle stayed.

Renjun locked his phone and leaned into his pillow while raising his arm. He looked at it and then started wondering about whose name that was going to show up there tomorrow. He sure felt excited about his soulmate’s name but at the same time felt nervous and scared. Renjun fell asleep that night with the thought of his soulmate’s name lingering inside his mind.

***

Renjun turned off his alarm that he forgot to change last night. He tossed around on his bed, still not wanting to get up. It was 6 am and it was too early to wake up on a weekend. Renjun groaned when he heard his phone going off again and took it to see who had called him. He got up immediately when he saw that his mom was the caller.

 _“What took you so long to pick up?”_ His mom asked, making Renjun feel a little bad.

“Sorry, I just woke up. What is it, Ma?” He asked.

Renjun suddenly could hear a birthday song being sung at the other end. A smile suddenly spread across his face. He could hear his mom and dad singing him a birthday song and maybe some of his cousins too.

 _“Happy birthday, baobei! I hope you will eat lots of good food today. Sorry that Mama and Papa couldn’t come to Seoul this year,”_ Renjun could hear a tint of sadness in his mom’s words. He smiled sadly and nodded at his mom’s words.

“It’s fine. I feel happy enough to hear Mama and Papa's voice first thing in the morning. It’s still 5 am there though, why are the others at our house?” He asked when he realized it was still 5 am in China and he could hear his cousins chatting at the back.

 _“They wanted to sleep over last night because they wanted to congratulate you with us today,”_ his mom answered. Renjun just nodded his head again.

“Say thank you from me to them then,” Renjun said and his mom answered yes before he heard so many voices trying to talk to him at once.

He laughed and said, “Hey hey, calm down, jiejie. I can’t hear what you’re saying if you all try to talk at once,” but none of them listened to Renjun, so he laughed even harder.

He still could hear a few words his cousins were saying though but it was just so funny how all of them tried to talk to him at once. It has not been that long since Renjun went back home but why did all of them act like it has been years since the last time Renjun went home.

Renjun played with his shirt sleeve while listening to his cousin's words at the other end and he suddenly remembered something. Renjun pulled up his sleeve and his eyes went big at what he saw on his arm.

“Oh my god,” he whispered to himself and one of his cousins caught on to it. She then asked him what happened. Renjun couldn’t stop his heart from beating so fast.

“Jiejie, I’ll hang up now, I need to go. Talk to you later.”

Renjun put his phone down and caressed his arm. He could literally hear his heart beating so fast against his ribcage. Renjun got up from his bed and went inside the bathroom. He washed his face first and washed his arm, trying to see if anything would change. His breath hitched when it didn’t do anything to whatever was written there.

He let out a sigh, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

There on his arm, written the one name he really didn't expect and most importantly didn't want to see. The one and only, Lee Donghyuck.

***

After a small breakdown Renjun had in front of the mirror, he decided to take a cold shower to clear his mind. The cold literally didn’t give him any effect even though it was so early in the morning.

Renjun walked out from his bathroom already in his casual shirt and shorts. He then walked to his couch, trying to digest a lot of things going on inside his mind. He can’t stop looking at the name and let out a deep sigh.

“Out of all people in this world and I, again, ended up with him. What does the universe have against me seriously,” he whispered. Renjun closed his eyes and put his arm on top of it. His mind literally felt like a tangled thread.

His phone suddenly rang so loud that it startled him from his deep thought. Renjun got up and walked to get his phone that was still inside his bedroom. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Jaemin.

Renjun pressed the answer button and put his phone against his ear. The first thing he heard was Jaemin singing a birthday song to him. It was a little bit off but Renjun felt a little bit lighter after hearing Jaemin’s weird singing voice.

 _“Happy birthday to the love of my life whose not really the love of my life but anyways, happy birthday!!”_ Renjun laughed at Jaemin's nonsense and murmured a small thank you to him.

 _“Did your mom already call you or am I finally the first one to congratulate you this year?”_ Renjun chuckled at him before answered.

“Nah, you're late again. Mom already called me one hour ago. She called me right when I was just about to wake up,” Renjun laughed when Jaemin whined.

_“Aww, seriously, why is your mom so fast? I swear to god, I’m gonna promise myself that I’ll become the first one to congratulate you next year!!”_

“Well, I’m gonna pray and root you for that,” he smiled.

A silence fell through and he could hear Jaemin walking around before a poof sound could be heard. A sigh then let out from the other end and then a hum.

“So…?” Renjun said, literally waiting for Jaemin to continue to talk.

 _“So...who is it?”_ Renjun knew what he meant but he really didn't want to say it and so he let out a deep sigh. Jaemin seemed to catch it and asked him.

 _“Who is it? Is it someone we know? Or not? Or even worse, someone older than you?! Or...younger?”_ Renjun smiled bitterly to himself while looking at his arm before answering.

“It’s someone we know”

_“Oh! Oh! Who is it?”_

There was a silence because Renjun contemplated whether to say it or not but ended up saying fuck it.

“It’s Donghyuck.”

Renjun furrowed his eyebrows because Jaemin went silent after he said that. And then a laugh could be heard.

 _“I knew he would become your soulmate!”_ Renjun rolled his eyes at Jaemin's remarks and his laugh.

“And why is that?” He lazily asked.

_“Well, I don’t know! But I could literally sense you two were made for each other although you two ended at the wrong foot last time. Also, I know you are dense as fuck but the way Donghyuck looked at you the last time I saw you two together was different, so there’s that.”_

Renjun furrowed his eyebrows, “What do you mean by there’s that and what do you mean he looked at me differently? I thought it was just normal,” he said.

There was silence before a sigh could be heard from the other end.

_“Well, see, you are dense as fuck. Like I said, he looks at you differently. I don’t know if different here is like he has feelings for you kind of different or he’s plotting to kill you kind of different but the point is, he looks at you differently from the way he looks at that friend of his, Yangyang or me!”_

Renjun went silent at that before Jaemin continued.

 _“Do you understand now? Or you still can’t tell?”_ There was a pause, _“I believe you would say fuck Jaemin lives and answer the latter.”_ He continued.

There was a silence before Renjun said, “Well…”

 _“Well, fuck Jaemin lives it is then.”_ A pause. Then, _“If that’s what you want to believe then it’s your choice but please don’t come to me if what I said ends up being true”_

“Whatever. I’ll hang up now. There is no use in talking to you now. See you on Monday.”

_“Yeah yeah”_

Renjun put down his phone after ending the call. He let out another sigh and closed his eyes. Still trying to make sense about whatever that just happened. It was only 8 am on a Saturday but he already used his brain and mental strength like it was a school day.

A few minutes had passed in silence with Renjun busy in his own mind when another beep came from his phone. Renjun looked at his phone screen to see who was the person that interrupted his alone time. His eyes went bigger when he saw Donghyuck's name flashing on his phone screen.

“Not you,” he groaned.

From : 이동혁

_Hey_  
_Just remembered that apparently today is the 23rd of March which means it’s your birthday, so_  
_Happy birthday_  
_…_  
_Do you want to go out to eat or something?_  
_It’s on me btw_

Was what Renjun read from his notification bar. He sighed and decided to ignore it.

“I am so not going to talk or do anything with you today, Lee,” he whispered to himself. “Why does the universe hates me so much.”

***  
Renjun spent the rest of the weekend busying himself with homework and any other work he needed to complete before Monday. Donghyuck kept sending him messages but he ignored it, along with Jaemin’s messages. He tried to not think about the name written on his wrist. It was no use though because no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, that name will forever be written on his wrist.

Monday came and Renjun’s feet couldn’t feel heavier. He had prayed that he would not meet Donghyuck on the way to school today, so he chose to walk instead in order to prevent meeting Donghyuck if he took his usual bus.

Renjun walked inside the school building feeling relieved because he hadn't stumbled upon Donghyuck on his way to school. He then made his way to his class with a lighter heart. When he was about to open his class door, which was strangely closed that morning, he was shocked when his classmates suddenly threw confetti at him and sang him a birthday song..

His classmates took turns to congratulate him and that made his heart feel warm. Renjun smiled at his classmates and thanked them for congratulating him although it wasn’t really necessary. His classmates just brushed it off and said because it was his seventeenth birthday, of course they would throw some mini party for him.

“If you guys insist then, thank you for preparing this. You guys probably went to school earlier just to prepare this for me. Thank you so much, I cannot thank you guys enough but really, thank you so much,” he said while smiling.

“It’s okay! Although your birthday was like two days ago, I hope you don’t mind this late surprise,” said Bomin. Renjun just laughed at him.

“Nah, that’s fine. Thank you though, really.”

Renjun smiled and then thanked them again before going to his seat. Jaemin was already there, sitting in his seat with a box wrapped in a sky blue paper. There was a pout visible on his lips and Renjun couldn’t help but giggle at that.

“Morning, Jaem,” Renjun greeted him. “Sorry for not answering your messages for two days straight. I had a lot going on inside my mind and I kinda need some alone time for that. I hope you understand,” he said while smiling softly at Jaemin. The poor boy let out a huff before pushing the box to Renjun.

“I was supposed to give that to you yesterday but since you didn’t reply to any of my messages, I just decided to bring them today,” he paused. “I don’t know if you would like it though.” Jaemin looked at Renjun who nodded at him and observed the box in front of him.

It was a medium sized box wrapped in a sky blue paper. Renjun looked at Jaemin as if he was asking Jaemin about what he should do with the box in front of him.

“You could open it now if you want. Or if you want to open it later after school, that would be fine too,” Jaemin said, smiling. Renjun just nodded at him before saying he would just open it after school ends.

Jaemin just nodded and then started looking at what Renjun was wearing. That morning wasn’t that cold but why did Renjun wear a white hoodie on top of his uniform?

“Jun,” he called. Renjun just hummed while looking at his phone, checking his social media.

“Is there any particular reason you’re wearing a hoodie today?” Jaemin questioned making Renjun stop whatever he was doing at that time. He then looked up and was met with a pretty curious Jaemin looking at him.

Renjun hummed then said, “Just wanted to? Is there any problem?”

Jaemin looked at Renjun suspiciously before shaking his head. Renjun just shrugged at him and told him to turn around because their homeroom teacher just walked in.

***  
Classes went by just like that and it was lunchtime already. Renjun tidied his desk before walking over to Jaemin who was waiting for him in front of the class. Renjun still had his hoodie on and Jaemin kept glancing at him while they were on their way to the canteen.

It was quite packed already and Jaemin hurriedly walked to the table where the utensils were and started lining up. Renjun followed suit while focusing on the whiteboard that had their lunch menu written on for today. He took everything that was offered and then followed Jaemin to one of the few tables that vacant.

Right after they were seated, Renjun started eating his meal while Jaemin looked around them. When he spotted Yangyang he waved his hand in which Yangyang returned gladly and walked over to their table.

“Hey Jaem,” he greeted. Jaemin just nodded his head and then proceeded to eat his meals. Yangyang start eating his meals too.

None of them started any conversation before Yangyang looked up from his food and clapped his hands together, making both Jaemin and Renjun startled and looked over to him.

“I forgot to congratulate you! Happy birthday, Jun, sorry, I really forgot about your birthday,” Yangyang grinned at him while Renjun just shook his head and continued to eat his food.

When the three of them finished eating, someone approached their table, making whatever they were doing at that moment stop and looked up to see who the person was. And to Renjun’s surprise, it was Donghyuck, staring at them before looking at Renjun straight in the eyes.

“Why didn’t you reply to any of my message?” He asked. Renjun want to roll his eyes and snapped at him before Jaemin replied.

“You are not special, he didn’t reply to any of my messages either and it’s none of your business to know what the reason was,” he said while glaring Donghyuck. Yangyang sat stiff in his spot, clueless about whatever happened among these three. Before Donghyuck could let out another reply, Renjun stood up from his spot and looked at Jaemin, clearly ignoring Donghyuck.

“Come on, Jaem, we’re late for class,” he said and started walking. Jaemin followed behind him but stopped midway to turn to Donghyuck and stuck his tongue out then continued walking.

Donghyuck turned his head back to the still seated Yangyang with a confused face. Yangyang looked at Donghyuck.

“What just happened?” He asked. Donghyuck let out a sigh before sitting down.

“I clearly don’t know,” Donghyuck paused. “I just wanted to ask why he didn’t answer any of my messages for the last two days?” He pouted, still looking at the confused Yangyang.

“Did you fight or something?” Yangyang asked.

Donghyuck furrowed his eyebrows before answering, “No? Not that I remember but I don’t think we fought. We were still talking and we even went to an ice cream parlor last Thursday,” Donghyuck put his head on top of his hands and then looked up. He saw Jeno walking their way.

“What did he say?” He asked. Donghyuck shook his head before Jeno turned his head to Yangyang in which the boy shook his head too.

Jeno let out a sigh, “Let’s just go back to class, okay? Give him time. Maybe he had some hard time. You’re still going to meet him later during music club meeting.” Jeno smiled at the still sulking Donghyuck before tugging at his uniform.

“Yeah yeah.” Donghyuck got up, turned his head to Yangyang to say his goodbyes and then walked back to their class.

“Something did happen to the both of them,” Yangyang muttered. A smile suddenly crept on his face before he clapped his hands. “I’m gonna find out what that something is.”

***

Renjun threw himself onto his table and then put his face on top of his hands. Jaemin seated himself in front of Renjun and he could hear Renjun’s low growling before the boy turned his head to the side.

“What happened to you?” Jaemin asked. Renjun ignored him before Jaemin started tugging on his hoodie, demanding an answer from him.

“Why did it have to be him, Jaem? Why?” Renjun said in a low tone. Jaemin furrowed his eyebrows at him before letting out a sigh.

“You know, you gotta accept that fact sooner or later, right? Why don’t you just tell him? It won’t be that bad, you used to be friends anyway,” Jaemin said, trying to get Renjun back to his senses.

“It’s not that easy, Na Jaemin!” Renjun snapped, taking Jaemin by surprise before slapping Renjun’s hand.

“Please do enlighten me in which way it’s not easy,” he said, waiting for Renjun’s reply.

A few minutes has passed and Renjun was still busy dwelling that when the bell rang his whole body jerked off from the table, making Jaemin startled. He looked at Renjun confusedly before sighing when he saw the boy laying his head back onto the table again.

“You know you’re gonna face him no matter what. You two are in the same club for goodness sake. You are bound to be around him even if you try to ignore him. Please get back to your senses before I snap your neck, Huang Renjun,” Jaemin said before turning his body towards the front when their history teacher walked in.

Renjun let out a sigh before putting out his books and whispered, “I hate my life.”

***

The last class just ended with a loud groan from the students because their natural science teacher had just given them a huge project to do before summer break came, which was four months from now. Renjun scribbled on his notes for the project and closed it when he was done.

“Mr. Kang really likes to torture us with this kind of project. How can he be so mean,” one of his classmates, Park Chaewon, groaned while putting her stuff inside her bag. The boy seated in front of him turned back and agreed.

“He seriously shows no mercy. How can we get him as our natural science teacher, again, this year?” Son Youngjae, or preferred to be called Eric, said while putting away his books. A few other of his classmates started complaining when Renjun finished putting his books inside his bag and locker.

Jaemin waited for him at the doorway and the both of them walked together to the other side of their school building. Renjun put his hands inside his hoodie pocket. Silence took over them for a few minutes before Renjun asked Jaemin whether he had meetings for today.

“Nope, Hyunjin said we will be having one tomorrow. He has some business to do today, so,” he shrugged before stopping in front of the music club’s door.

“Please do behave like a human being with Donghyuck, Jun. I know you are trying to ignore him as much as you can but please, I know you are better than that,” Jaemin said, his eyes glistening under the sun’s rays. Renjun sighed then nodded.

Before Jaemin could say anything though, Renjun said, “No promises,” which made Jaemin pout before saying it’s okay, at least he was trying to act civil while Donghyuck was around.

“See you tomorrow then,” Renjun said, waving his hand to Jaemin who walked away.

Renjun let out a sigh before turning the door knob and pushed the door open. He was meeting with his club members and it seemed like the other had not arrived yet. Renjun greeted them and then walked to the table near the piano to put his stuff.

The door opened and someone came in while saying, “Sorry, we are late.”

Renjun turned around and was met with Donghyuck who was panting and Heejin at his side, still trying to catch her breath. Renjun just nodded at them and told them to take a seat. Renjun looked around and did a headcount. It was two less than last week and honestly, Renjun was not surprised at all, he already kinda expect this would happen one day. Just did not expect it to be today.

“Well,” he cleared his throat which took the students’ attention, “Does anyone know whether Choi Yerim and Lee Daehwi will be coming today?” He asked the students there.

No one seemed to want to answer Renjun’s question before one of them held their hand out making Renjun let out a sigh of relief.

“Yes, Yuri?” said Renjun.

“I don’t know about Yerim but Daehwi didn’t come to school today, called in sick if I’m not mistaken,” Yuri said while playing with them hem of her uniform.

Renjun nodded, acknowledging and was preparing himself to start the club meeting before someone came bursting into the room with a heavy breath. The entire room turned their heads to the door and looked at the person, confused.

“I’m sorry for being late. Mrs. Bae held me hostage for pranking her on the last period,” Yerim explained while huffing and walked to the nearest chair then took a seat.

Renjun held in his laugh and then cleared his throat before starting the meeting. He looked at the students and motioned them to come closer so that it would be easier for them to hear and for him to speak at a normal volume.

“Well, now that everyone is here, we shall start our meeting for today,” he started. “I hope you still remember what we talked about last Monday. As we’re gonna join this year art’s festival again, I have read all your suggestions that you sent me through email and I honestly think you all are way more clever than me,” he smiled.

“However, your average suggestions require more people than what our club currently has,” he paused. “So, I want to ask one more time today for your suggestions. I hope we could have a conclusion by the end of the meeting today.”

The room then started to get filled with the students voicing out their thoughts. Some were just talking, sprouting out useless ideas but some actually gave him good suggestions. Renjun looked over to Jinsol who raised her hand in the middle of Kangmin trying to explain his idea.

“I was just wondering, and forgive me if I sound rude, but do you have suggestions too?” She asked him to which Renjun just chuckled.

“I do, in fact, have suggestions but it’s the same old one that people will probably get bored of once we step our foot onto the stage,” he smiled at Jinsol, which she gladly returned the smile.

“But it doesn’t hurt to use the same old one, don’t you think?” Hyunsuk said.

Renjun nodded, “Yes, indeed. I don’t mind using the old one but don’t you all want something new as the new members of this music club?” He asked.

“Well, we do but if the old one holds more hope than new ones, might as well use it,” said Yerim.

The others started agreeing to what Yerim said and Renjun thought, maybe it was okay to just use the old one.

“Well, if you all want it so bad,” he said. “For last year’s festival, our club opened a booth, of course, and performed a duet stage. It was Jiwoo-sunbae and Yeonjung-sunbae that performed the duet stage with Mark hyung, our club’s old leader, playing the guitar. It was a really great performance though,” he continued with a smile on his face, clearly having a small flashback moment from last year's festival.

“Well, that sounds great! Let’s use it then,” Yunkyung said, smiling.

“Does anyone want to perform the duet stage? Or like, recommend someone to perform?” Yerim suddenly rose from her place, looking around to see if anyone wanted to do the stage.

The room was in a weird bout of silence as Yerim kept looking around, hoping if anyone either wanted to volunteer themselves or recommend someone. Right when Yerim wanted to speak again, someone cleared their throat. Renjun somehow got an uneasy feeling when he saw who it was.

“I was just thinking,” Heejin started. “What do you think if our current leader does the duet stage with Haechan?” She asked, looking around for any response. Renjun really wanted to turn down the idea but he didn’t even get to let out his voice when the others suddenly agreed to Heejin’s suggestion.

“That would be a really great idea!” Yuri said.

Heejin turned his head to Renjun, “Well?” she said while smiling.

Renjun gulped hard, “Did you already ask him about this?” he asked eventually.

Heejin waved her hand before saying, “Nah, he won’t say a thing. You just gotta try to work with him,” she said. Donghyuck who was sitting behind Heejin rolled his eyes then shrugged.

“Uh, well, if you think it’s the best idea, what can I say,” he smiled, not really reaching his eyes. “Well, let’s move on now to our booth shall we? We should decide the desk job for the booth,” he paused then continued, “Who wants to volunteer?”

The meeting went on after that with the kids volunteering themselves for certain jobs made by Renjun while he was busy listening and wrote down their names. Renjun felt grateful that the kids from the first year this year wasn’t really as passive as his year.

A few minutes had passed when Renjun finally declared that the meeting was over. He then closed the meeting and started tidying up his stuff. He had a lot inside his mind that when he turned to leave after locking the door, Donghyuck’s figure startled him like he just saw a ghost.

“On God! Donghyuck! What are you doing there? I could get a heart attack because of that,” he said then started walking out.

“Didn’t mean to do that,” Donghyuck said. “What were you thinking about anyway? Looked like you were fighting with yourself right then,” he continued.

Renjun glared him, “Nothing.”

Donghyuck then shrugged and silence fell over them while walking. When the two of them arrived at the bus stop however Donghyuck just realized that Renjun was wearing a hoodie. He looked at him weirdly and it was making Renjun uncomfortable.

“What are you looking at?” He said, it came off rather harsh than what he intended.

Donghyuck glanced at him one more time before he looked up front. Renjun’s eyebrows furrowed at his weird act.

“Why are you wearing a hoodie today? Today’s weather is rather warm I must say,” Donghyuck said after a while. It took Renjun off guard and he started to make excuses inside his head before their bus came to the bus stop.

The two of them walked inside after scanning their card. They took a seat at the back of the bus and sat there silently before Renjun chose to open his mouth.

“Why did you ask?”

“Just curious,” answered Donghyuck. “And was worried that you got sick two days back, that’s probably why you didn’t reply to any of my messages.”

Renjun was stunned and turned his head to the window on his left side,trying to form words to answer Donghyuck’s curiousness.

“I’m not, thankfully,” he said after much thought.

“Well, I’m glad to know that,” Donghyuck said, turning his head over to Renjun for a split second before looking to the front again. “Just, if you were to ever get sick I hope you would never hesitate to call me. I know how far Jaemin’s house is, Jaemin told me by the way, mine is probably closer to yours, so, just in case,” Donghyuck’s voice slowed down at the end. Renjun glanced at him from his reflection on the window.

“Okay.”

***

Later that night, after taking a shower and cooking himself a decent dinner, Renjun started working on his homework and sorted out the list he made from the meeting earlier. There was a lot of things he should consider before coming up with a proper list.

When he was focused on his homework, after abandoning the list, he heard his phone vibrating from his bedside table. He glanced at it once and then back to focusing on his homework, thinking it might be Jaemin asking him about their homework. But it kept vibrating and kinda distracted him from his homework. He then approached his bedside table and took his phone.

It was from Donghyuck. He groaned.

From : 이동혁  
_Yo_  
_Do you want to talk about the songs we should sing?_  
_Huang Renjun_  
_…_  
_Are you already asleep?_  
_But it’s still 8 pm_  
_Impossible_

He let out a big sigh before typing his reply.

“What do you want?”

_Oh!_  
_You’re still awake, thought so_  
_I already said there_  
_Do you want to talk about the song?_

“Can’t now”  
“You’re disturbing me doing my homework”

_Well_  
_Tomorrow then_

“Okay”  
“The music club room”  
“After school”

_Okay, Cap!_

Renjun rolled his eyes at Donghyuck’s reply before locking his phone and got back on doing his homework. A little bit distracted than before because of Donghyuck but finally regained his focus again.

Half an hour later and finally Renjun finished his homework. He tidied his school books and put out his notes from earlier. Try to sort everything out then so he didn’t have to think of these tomorrow and could send them to the club group chat.

It took him another hour to finally come up with a proper list. He then wrote them out on a document on his laptop and send them out to their club group chat. Renjun turned off his laptop and his study lamp before walking to his bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face.

Renjun walked back to his bedroom and sat down on his bed. He unlocked his phone then checked on the group chat if anyone already saw the file he sent. He smiled to himself while reading the reply the kids sent in the group chat.

**Music Club Group Chat**

**Yerim**  
_Ay ay cap!_

_Woah_  
_You have worked hard, sunbae!_  
_Thank you~_

**Jeongin**  
_Our captain really is the best_

**Jinsol**  
_When will we start collecting the stuff? ‘ㅅ’_

**Daehwi**  
_You are too excited, Sol-ah_  
_We still have lots of time before the art festival_

**Jinsol**  
_Just asking y’knoo -o-_

**Renjun**  
_Aren’t y’all going to sleep?_  
_It’s late already_  
_Go to sleep_

**Yerim**  
_It’s still early~_

**Renjun**  
_Don’t stay up too late then_  
_You really don’t want to be late to school_  
_And meet with our school head of discipline_

**Haechan**  
_Oh yeah_  
_I could guarantee you all for that_  
_You really don’t want to meet with that old lady_

**Renjun**  
_Lee Haechan_

**Haechan**  
_Welp_  
_Sorry sorry_  
_Good night anyway, to all of you_  
_Byee_

Renjun shook his head when he read Donghyuck’s reply. That kid doesn't have any fear, does he? After sending some more replies to the group chat and told the kids to actually go to sleep, Renjun locked his phone and went to sleep.

***

Renjun woke up and wriggled his way out of bed. He went to take a shower and put on his uniform. Renjun cooked two eggs and bacon with some rice. When Renjun finished his breakfast, he took his bag then walked out of his apartment building.

He walked again today because he didn’t feel like taking the bus. It was almost eight when Renjun stepped into the school yard. Some students were running inside, afraid of being late but he just choose to walk on a normal pace.

He greeted several teachers he met on the way to his class, greeted some friends from other classes before finally arriving at his class. It was quite full already when he walked in. A few of his classmates were running inside the class from the back door when he finally sat down and their homeroom teacher came in while shaking his head in amusement.

“Almost came late, hm, Jisung? Youngjae?” His homeroom teacher asked while preparing his books. The two who just got called out by their teacher just grinned at their homeroom teacher.

“Well, good morning. Shall we start our class now?”

***

Renjun’s class was having a free period during Korean Language due to the absence of their teacher. Most of his classmates were sleeping and the others were busy playing games on their phones or watching dramas. Renjun on the other hand, was busy listening to Jaemin ranting about how annoying his neighbour was. It was really not typical of Jaemin to talk bad about someone like this but Renjun thought he might have a good reason for that.

Right when Jaemin finished his story about said neighbour, their school bell rang signalling it was lunchtime already. Jaemin then ushered Renjun to get out of the class fast so that they would be able to get good seats in the canteen.

When the two arrived at the canteen, the line was already taken by half of the room. Renjun read the menu for today and decided he would only get two out of four from the menu.

After finished taking their food, Renjun walked first to the nearest empty seat he could find and sat himself down. He then started eating his lunch, not minding what Jaemin was doing. Renjun was still wearing his hoodie today and Jaemin still hadn’t gotten the answer he wanted.

Yangyang came to their table not long after with his tray full of food. He said something along the lines of asking the staff to give him more than the usual and since they thought Yangyang looked cute, they just gave it to him.

Renjun finished first and started looking around the room, observing the other students chattering or eating alone until his eyes met with Donghyuck on the other side of the room. Renjun immediately looked away and started makes himself busy while waiting for Jaemin and Yangyang to finish eating.

“Jun,” Yangyang opened his mouth when he finished eating. Renjun turned his head to Yangyang and waited for him to continue.

“Are you and Haechan fighting?”

Jaemin choked on his water when that question rolled out of Yangyang’s lips. Renjun rolled his eyes at Jaemin and started soothing his back. He looked back at Yangyang, who was shocked by Jaemin’s reaction, and answered his question.

“No. Why are you asking?” He asked. Curious as to how Yangyang could have ended up in that conclusion.

“Well, you two look like you guys were angry at each other,” Yangyang answered, with such an innocent expression. Renjun let out a sigh.

“We aren’t angry at each other, Yang. Don’t think of anything weird or come up to a weird conclusion,” said Renjun. Yangyang just nodded then looked at Jaemin, who was still in a daze.

“Is he gonna be alright?” He asked. Renjun turned his head at Jaemin and nodded.

“He will be fine.”

***

It was a quarter past four when their teacher finally ended the class. Mr. Cho held them back for a sudden quiz and it surprisingly lasted longer than he expected. Renjun quickly tidied up his books and put it in his locker before dashing out of the classroom, leaving Jaemin without any explanation.

Renjun stopped in front of the music club room with a heavy breath from running. After he felt that his breath was normal, Renjun turned the knob and was met with Donghyuck playing the piano. He stopped when he heard Renjun opened the door.

“Thought you wouldn’t come,” he said while standing up from the piano seat.

“Sorry for being late. Mr. Cho did a sudden quiz and it lasted longer than what I expected,” Renjun tried to explain. He walked to where Donghyuck was sitting and dropped himself down.

“No need to explain yourself, I know you won’t back out. Here,” Donghyuck handed him a water bottle. Renjun took it and said thanks before drinking it. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Donghyuck opened his mouth.

“Are you okay now? Or should I wait for another minute ‘til you feel stable enough?”

Renjun glared him then put down the water bottle and took out his note.

“Alright, what would you suggest?” Renjun asked Donghyuck, ready with his pen to write down whatever songs Donghyuck was going to throw out. Donghyuck hummed with his hand on his chin. Renjun waited still in front of him, trying to not put his hope too high for Donghyuck’s suggestions.

“First of all, should we choose a bright song or a ballad one?” Donghyuck asked.

“Anything is fine. We are just gonna put down any songs we think of performing then choosing it for real later,” Renjun answered. Donghyuck nodded and then pulled out his phone, probably to check on his playlist.

“What do you think of J.Y.P’s songs? Like, who’s your mama? That song’s lit!” Donghyuck said, looking up from his phone and was met with Renjun giving him an ‘are you kidding me’ look. “Okay, okay,” he chuckles, scrolling through his playlist again.

“How about put your hands up by 2pm?” Donghyuck chuckled again when he was met with Renjun’s burning eyes.

“For real, Donghyuck, let’s serious!” Renjun glared him.

“Well, what about you then? Do you have any suggestions?” Putting his phone away, Donghyuck focused on Renjun who got taken aback by the sudden question.

“W-well, of course I have!” said Renjun. Donghyuck leaned back then motioned for Renjun to continue.

“Shoot then,” he said.

Renjun stumbled his way to take his phone out and went straight to his song playlist. He glanced towards Donghyuck, who was looking at him, waiting, before he cleared his throat and straightened his position.

“Well, I have a few to name. I believe mine is better than yours.” Donghyuck rolled his eyes at Renjun’s words.

“There’s NCT U Timeless, my most favorite, IU Through the Night, Dean Half Moon—”

“All of those are ballads. I thought we were gonna choose both sides,” Donghyuck said, pouting.

“Well, I didn’t even get to finish my list yet when you suddenly cut me off,” Renjun snapped at him. Donghyuck shrugged then motioned Renjun to continue on his list.

“If you want something fun or with high spirit, I have EXO Run, Day6 Sweet Chaos—”

“That’s no fun! How about gangnam style? That one is definitely more high spirited than what you just said,” said Donghyuck.

“I swear to God, Lee Donghyuck, I’m gonna murder you right now for cutting me off,” Renjun was about to snap Donghyuck’s neck before the poor boy ran for his life and hid behind the piano.

“Sorry sorry!” He screamed. “What about I Loved You then? Day6? I thought you might like them,” Donghyuck said, still hiding behind the piano, scared that Renjun might actually snap his neck into two pieces.

“What?” Renjun asked him one more time to make sure he didn’t hear it wrong.

“Day6’s I Loved You! I know you like them, it’s a good song too,” Donghyuck finally walked out from his hiding place. Sitting himself down five steps away from where Renjun was seated.

“Why did you suddenly suggest this? I thought you wanted to do something fun?” Renjun asked him, curious about his reasons. Donghyuck just shrugged at him and then played with his fingers before looking up.

“It’s just,” he paused. “Because you like them, that’s all,” he stared at Renjun’s wide eyes.

“O-oh…” Renjun failed to find his voice back. There was a silence there for a few minutes before Renjun cleared his throat and nodded his head.

“Well, I Loved You it is then,” he agreed. Donghyuck shot his head up so fast that Renjun thought he might actually snap his neck.

“Really?” He asked.

“Well, I don’t mind using Day6’s songs, I love all their discography anyway,” Renjun shrugged. He could see Donghyuck smiling so wide at him.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Lee. I only agreed to your song recommendation, that doesn’t mean I want to be your friend again,” Renjun said, scribbling something down on his note. Donghyuck made his way to Renjun, still smiling.

“Well, at least I’m one step closer to being one,” he grinned at Renjun. Renjun glared him before focusing back at his notes. He then closed the book and turned his head to Donghyuck.

“Do you have any idea about how should we perform it? We definitely can’t use the original instruments,” Renjun said, leaning back against the wall behind him. Donghyuck stared at the ceiling for a minute before clapping his hands.

“How about doing it in an acoustic way? I have an image of using that piano as the instrument. What do you think?” Donghyuck pointed his finger to the piano then looked back at Renjun.

“That’s actually pretty nice,” said Renjun. Donghyuck furrowed his eyebrows at Renjun, clearly not taking any comment made by him seriously.

“Pretty nice? That’s an amazing idea! How dare you say that?” Donghyuck suddenly screamed at Renjun which took him by surprise. He rolled his eyes at Donghyuck and went back to writing on his notes. Donghyuck peeked at his notes, which he didn’t even get to read anything ‘cause the boy wrote it in Chinese.

“What did you write?” Donghyuck asked. Renjun turned his head to Donghyuck for a split second before focusing back on his notes. Donghyuck snorted at him but still waited patiently until the boy finished writing down whatever that is.

Renjun closed his books then took out his phone. He opened his messenger app and sent someone a message. He waited for the person to reply to his message and when he finally got the reply, Renjun clapped his hands. Donghyuck looked at him in confusion, really wanting to know about whatever Renjun was doing then.

Renjun sent one more reply then locked his phone. He wrote something down again and then looked at Donghyuck, which made him startled.

“Well, listen now ‘cause you look like you are close to dying because of me being busy.” Donghyuck rolled his eyes but let Renjun continue whatever he wanted to say.

“You mentioned about doing an acoustic stage with piano right, so I messaged one of our members, Daehwi, to help us in making the arrangement. That boy has talent at the piano, he agreed to help and now the only thing we should do is sort out the singing parts,” Renjun explained. Donghyuck just nodded at him and agreed.

The both of them then got busy sorting out the singing parts. There was bickering here and there but they finally come up with decent singing parts. Donghyuck was going to be the one who took the intro up until the first chorus, continued by Renjun and they planned on doing harmonization but didn’t know at which part and decided to wait for the arrangement first.

The sky had already changed to orange-ish when the two of them finally walked out from the school. The sky was still quite bright but they could already see the moon shine up there. They took the bus as usual and there was only silence between them up until they bid each other goodbye at the bus stop.

***

The rest of the week went by just like that with Renjun and Donghyuck had started being busy with their practice after school. Most of the time, the practice went pretty smooth except for the few attempts of Donghyuck trying to annoy Renjun in which the boy succeeded in every attempt.

Renjun was laying down on his couch watching his TV when his eyes darted to his arm. He then turned off the TV and put the remote onto the table.

“I still can't believe I got your name, out of everyone,” he murmured. Renjun’s eyes examined the name written on his arm before letting out a sigh and let his arm down.

His apartment was silent before his phone rang from the table across him. Renjun opened his eyes then looked to his side before reaching his hand to his phone. Renjun unlocked it and was welcomed by Donghyuck’s message.

From : 이동혁

_Yo, Renjun_  
_You busy?_

“No, why”

_I want to ask you to go out with me_  
_Can you?_

Renjun choked on his saliva when he read Donghyuck’s message. What does he mean by going out with him? Renjun quickly replied.

“What do you mean go out?”  
“Go out where?”

_Why do you sound like you are in panic?_  
_I want to go an ice cream shop_  
_Do you want to go with me or not?_  
_Don’t ask about Jeno_  
_He got business to do_  
_Can’t be canceled_

Renjun held his breath and tried to think fast. What should he do? Should he accept it? Or not?

_Renjun?_

Before he came to a conclusion, Donghyuck sent another message. Renjun let out a breath before sending his reply.

“Okay”  
“Wait for me at the bus stop”  
“I’ll be there in like 20 min or so”

_Okay…_

Renjun quickly ran to his bedroom to take his sweater and tidy up himself a bit in front of the mirror then walked to the front door. He wore white sneakers then walked outside. Renjun checked his phone and it was only thirty minutes past nine when he walked outside the apartment building.

Renjun took his time to walk to the bus stop. He really doesn't know what he was doing by accepting Donghyuck’s offer. When Renjun was finally close to the bus stop, he saw Donghyuck already standing not too far from the bus stop. He let out a sigh before approaching Donghyuck who was focused on his phone.

Donghyuck looked up and saw Renjun already walking towards him. Donghyuck smiled at Renjun then put his phone inside his pants’ pocket. Donghyuck was wearing a yellow shirt with a black outerwear. His hair was styled down and Renjun hated to admit that he looked cute. While Donghyuck looked stylish, Renjun was just wearing a white shirt with a sweater as outerwear.

The both of them waited for their bus to come and then walked inside after scanning their card. The bus only had several passengers so Renjun walked straight to the back seat and Donghyuck followed suit behind him. It was probably another silent journey for the both of them because no one seemed to want to start a conversation.

Renjun took the seat beside the window as usual and only looked outside. Donghyuck meanwhile looked busy with his thoughts that when Renjun shook his body to ask him where they would come down he got startled. He looked at Renjun with a confused face meanwhile Renjun grumbled.

“Where will we go down? I don’t want to go to the last stop, you know,” Renjun said. Donghyuck let out a small oh before answering.

“I think it’s close by. Probably one more stop then we will arrive,” Donghyuck said. Renjun just nodded his head then back to focus on the street outside.

Another silence fell between them for the rest of the trip before they finally arrived at their bus stop and walked to the ice cream shop Donghyuck mentioned earlier. Donghyuck was busy looking around meanwhile Renjun was busy taking some photos for himself. The trees they saw on the way to the ice cream shop was so pretty that Renjun couldn’t let that moment pass without a single photo.

***

They finally arrived at the ice cream shop and Renjun’s eyes beamed at the interior. It was a particularly small shop but it felt so comfy that Renjun thought it might be one of his favorite spots to come whenever he was bored. They ordered their ice cream then seated themselves down at one of the few empty tables.

Renjun was still looking around with his eyes sparkling. Donghyuck just observed him with a small smile on his face. Not long after, their orders came and both of them immediately ate them. Renjun, again, was amazed by the taste of the ice cream.

“How did you find this ice cream shop? They have one of the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted,” Renjun asked while still eating his ice cream. Donghyuck just shrugged.

“I don’t know, I just saw them on Instagram last night and then thought I wanted to go here and now here I am, with you,” said Donghyuck, smiling. Renjun looked up from his ice cream and met Donghyuck’s eyes who was looking at him before going back to eat his ice cream.

“Hey,” Donghyuck called when the both of them finished their ice cream. Renjun looked up from his phone and looked at Donghyuck, questioning.

“It’s almost lunch time, you know, do you want to go and get lunch with me?” Donghyuck asked, playing with the edge of his ice cream plate. Renjun looked at him wide eyed. Donghyuck waited for Renjun’s answer and almost let out an apology for the sudden offer but got cut off when Renjun said yes.

“Y-yes?” Donghyuck can’t believe he just choked on his own saliva and stuttered in front of _THE_ Huang Renjun but quickly recovered himself to let out the right response.

“Well, should we get going now? I know where to go, if you don’t mind, of course,” Donghyuck said while standing up from his seat and Renjun followed suit, shaking his head, giggling.

“Nah, that’s fine. I’m fine with whatever you offer as long as you don’t tell me to eat something that’s alive,” Renjun said. He looked up and saw Donghyuck’s kinda offended face.

“Excuse me but the raw and alive octopus is delicious if you know how to eat them,” Donghyuck said, still looking offended with what Renjun just said. Renjun furrowed his eyebrows, clearly not expecting Donghyuck’s response to be like that.

“Excuse you then, people have preference, you know, and mine is to avoid eating alive food as long as I could,” Renjun said, looking amused at Donghyuck’s still sulking face.

He smiled at Donghyuck’s face at last before turning his face forward. Donghyuck didn’t catch how the corner of Renjun’s lips went upward when they finally arrived at the restaurant Donghyuck mentioned. It was actually a malatang restaurant. Renjun felt a sudden excitement inside his stomach. He hasn't been able to eat any Chinese food ever since he came back to Korea and now that Donghyuck brought him here, he felt that he could hug Donghyuck.

“I thought you might want Chinese food, so I thought we should go here. I hope you like it, I often come here with Jeno,” Donghyuck said, trailing behind Renjun who looked excited. Renjun then turned around and smiled so big at Donghyuck that the boy thought Renjun’s mouth might rip anytime soon now.

“Like it? I love it! I haven’t been able to eat any Chinese food ever since I came back here from China, so this is really amazing. Thank you, Donghyuck,” said Renjun. There was a sincere tone in his voice and Donghyuck could tell his heart thumped at that.

“O-oh? Glad to know that then,” he said, smiling.

Both of them then started ordering and settled down on one of the empty tables they could find. The two of them looked like they had so much fun that probably no one would have thought that they actually hated each other to the core. Though that could be questioned right now.

***  
It was almost 3pm when the both of them went back at their first bus stop. The awkwardness wasn’t there anymore and they looked more comfortable with each other. Renjun let out a sigh before turning his body to Donghyuck, staring at the boy who was currently busy checking his phone.

“Hey, I think I’ll be going first. Jeno said he’s at my house and I can’t believe that punk didn’t tell me first that he wants to go to my house,” Donghyuck clicked his tongue then looked up. Renjun was looking at him then nodded.

“Yea, sure,” said Renjun. Donghyuck pursed his lips.

“See you tomorrow then?” He said, waiting for Renjun’s response.

“See you,” answered Renjun. Donghyuck turned on his heels and started walking away from the bus stop. He stopped mid-way when Renjun screamed at him.

“Don’t forget to practice our song too! Your voice still hurts my ears!” Screamed Renjun then laughed at Donghyuck’s reaction.

“Yours is worse!”

Renjun just stayed still at his place for around five minutes, looking at the road Donghyuck just walked off to. He let out a puff then turned the other way towards his apartment. The sky looked so bright and the tree’s leaves were starting to grow too. Renjun looked at the road in front of him and thought, how one moment he really hated Donghyuck but then the boy started doing something that made Renjun laugh, the feelings started to fade.

Renjun walked back inside his apartment building and continued to his block. He put his shoes back onto the shoe rack and threw himself onto the couch. The time he spent with Donghyuck really went so fast that he couldn’t believe for once they could act like how they used to be. Renjun wouldn’t lie about how much he missed spending his time with Donghyuck. The memory from his kindergarten up to the first two years of elementary school with him was haunting him like a ghost.

“He hasn't changed that much apparently. Still the same boy who liked to pull out pranks on me,” Renjun thought.

***

Monday came just like that and Renjun really didn't want to go to school today. He was too tired because of the homework he had to finish last night. Renjun put his hand over his mouth when a yawn left his mouth. He was wearing his glasses today, to hide his dark circles.

Renjun stopped at the bus stop and waited for the bus to come. He looked around, there were only a few students at the bus stop, some were from the same school as him and the others weren't. Renjun’s body jerked when someone tapped hard on his shoulder.

“Why did you do that?!” He snapped when he saw who was the culprit. It was Donghyuck, as usual. Renjun pouted then went back to focus on the road. He screamed internally when the bus finally came, his legs were already a second away from giving up.

“Why do you look so drained out?” Donghyuck asked when the both of them already sat down.

“None of your business and please don’t talk to me, I’m tired,” Renjun said while closing his eyes. Donghyuck stared at Renjun’s face and realised the dark circles under his eyes. He then decided to just keep silent or Renjun might actually kill him today.

They finally arrived at the school bus stop 30 minutes before 8. Renjun quickly went down and walked straight to the school building, still ignoring the existence of Lee Donghyuck who was still tailing behind him. Donghyuck kept his distance from Renjun and stopped following him only when he saw Renjun arriving at his classroom without fainting.

Renjun walked to his table and sat down. He was really tired and he didn't even know why, besides from doing the homework of course. Not long after, Jaemin walked in with his usual bright smile. He greeted the other classmates then walked to his seat.

He looked at Renjun, confused, before tugging on the boy who still had his head on top of the table. Jaemin heard Renjun groaned then decided today was not the right day to annoy Renjun.

But today was April 1st though.

***

Renjun took part in today’s lesson with a really low spirit. He ate his breakfast this morning and took his vitamins too, so why did he feel so drained out?

Lunchtime finally came and Renjun immediately stood up from his seat right after their teacher walked out. Jaemin followed behind him and kept looking at Renjun who looked like he had zero interest in whatever was gonna happen today. They arrived at the canteen lounge and took their utensils then started to queue up. The menu wasn’t really to Renjun’s liking so he only took some of the side dishes but asked for more rice to cover up from the lack of side dishes.

They sat down at the nearest empty table and started eating. Yangyang joined not long after and started chit chatting with Jaemin. Renjun was too focused on his food that he didn’t even hear what the two of them were talking about. When Renjun finished, he took out his phone and played with it while waiting for Jaemin and Yangyang to finish their lunch.

“Jun,” Yangyang called, making Renjun look up from his phone with a questioning look.

“I heard you and Haechan already started practicing, yeah?” Renjun just nodded at this and waited for Yangyang to continue his sentence. “The first years kept saying that your voice matches well with Haechan and not to mention your choice of song. I’m really curious, so can I take a look at your practice later?” Yangyang said with puppy eyes making Renjun let out a fake vomit.

“No, you can’t. If you want to see it, you need to wait until the art festival comes, which is in another two months,” said Renjun and continued playing with his phone, not minding Yangyang who was pouting at him.

***

The bell for the last class finally rang, signalling that school hours were finally over. The students inside got busy tidying up their stuff while chatting with each other. Jaemin bid Renjun goodbye first as Hyunjin pulled him out of the classroom for their meeting.

Renjun walked to the other side of the school building to the music club’s room. Spring was coming as Renjun could feel the warm breeze mixed with the cold from the last bits of winter.

Renjun opened the music club’s door and was surprised at the darkness. It was not like the usual because the members should be in the room already as half of them were first years and their classrooms were in the same building as the music club’s room. Renjun closed the door and walked to find the switch to turn on the lights but he forgot where the switch was.

After much thought, Renjun finally remembered where the switch was. When he started walking however, a muffled voice coming from behind the curtains of the stage startled him. He turned his heels to the source of the voice and was about to touch the curtain when Donghyuck surprised him from behind at the same time the lights turned on.

“What the fuck Lee Donghyuck?! What are you doing!?” Renjun snapped almost immediately and hit Donghyuck really hard on his shoulder. Renjun could feel his heart beating so fast at the surprise and he glared Donghyuck who was smiling so brightly at him.

Renjun turned around and saw the others were actually already inside the room but hiding at places where Renjun couldn’t see them while in the darkness. Renjun softened his expression when he realized that the kids were shocked by his sudden burst. He turned his head back to a still grinning Donghyuck and slapped him one last time before walking towards where he usually sat.

“Now, kids, come and sit,” Renjun said. “Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you guys,” he continued while glaring Donghyuck who went to sit in front of him.

“You really are not angry, right, sunbae?” Jinsol asked after sitting herself down. Renjun smiled at her and shook his head.

“Nah, I know all too well who's behind the prank,” Renjun said. Donghyuck’s eyes went wide but he suddenly stuck out his tongue, making Renjun roll his eyes.

“Well, after the not so conducive advice exchanges in the chat room the past few days, did you all finally come up with something we should sell during the fest?” Renjun started. They were suddenly rambling before Hyunsuk shoot his hand up making the others go silent.

“Some of us, well at least those who are in the same class as me, were thinking that bubble tea are currently really famous across the city, so we thought about making and selling them during the fest,” Hyunsuk said, while Jeongin and Yunkyung were nodding their heads beside Hyunsuk.

Renjun wrote down Hyunsuk and his friends’ suggestions then asked again if there were any of them who had other suggestions. The kids hold their hands out and told Renjun their suggestions. Renjun was busy writing down the suggestions when he finally came up with the final stuff they would sell when the kids didn’t give him any other suggestion.

“Well, you all gave a lot of suggestions and I’m really proud of that but since we could only sell a limited amount of things, these are the stuff I chose for our booth, first is bubble tea, then hotteok and rice cake,” said Renjun. He looked at the kids before continuing, “Hyunsuk would be responsible for our booth with Jeongin and Yuri, since the two could make hotteok and rice cake. I believe you three could handle this? The others would help of course but you three would be in charge of handling the booth,” Renjun said and saw the kids nodding their heads in understandment.

Renjun smiled at all of them and called the meeting off. Renjun thought it was too early to go back to his apartment hence he asked Donghyuck to practice a couple of times before calling it a day.

“Donghyuck-ah, here, your voice in this part was kinda shaky,” Renjun said while pointing out the part. Donghyuck nodded then tried to sing that part again and Renjun pointed out that it was a little better but Donghyuck still needed to practice it more.

Renjun looked at his watch then sighed. He looked at Donghyuck who was still trying to fix his voice on the said part. Donghyuck looked serious and determined to fix his part but ended up coughing because he strained his voice too much. Renjun chuckled then called him.

“Let’s call it a day, shall we? Your voice literally can’t go on for another round,” he said, smiling. Donghyuck was about to protest when Renjun pointed his finger at him. “Nope, it’s over besides it’s almost six and I haven’t eaten anything since lunch,” continued Renjun, catching Donghyuck attention for a second.

Renjun started to tidy up meanwhile Donghyuck still froze in his place. His face looked like someone who was in a really deep thought. When Renjun turned to see Donghyuck, he furrowed his eyebrows at him.

“What he’s thinking now,” Renjun murmured. He sits down in front of Donghyuck then start waving his hand. “Hyuck! Lee Donghyuck!” Donghyuck looked startled then his body fell back a little which made Renjun startled.

“Why are you reacting that way?” He asked, confused. Donghyuck quickly fixed his position then start putting everything inside his bag.

“Come on!” Donghyuck stand up then started walking up to the door. Renjun stayed still in his place before Donghyuck looked back then called him.

“Huang Renjun, aren’t you going home?” Donghyuck said, waiting for Renjun to move.

Renjun immediately stood up then followed Donghyuck. The two walked in silence until they reached the front gate and greeted the guards there before they continued walking to the bus stop. It was still rather bright since it was only six and the weather was nice too. When the two arrived at the bus stop, Donghyuck couldn’t keep his feet still which made Renjun look at him weirdly.

“What are you doing?” He asked, finally, getting annoyed at Donghyuck’s weird act. Donghyuck looked at him then finally stayed still before voicing out his thoughts.

“Uhh, you know,” he started. “Since it was almost dinner time, uhh, do you want to go get some dinner with me?” He asked not looking at Renjun whose eyebrows were furrowed at him.

“I thought you were gonna spit out some nonsense again at me,” Renjun said. “But yeah, sure,” he continued, smiling.

Donghyuck turned his head to Renjun and saw Renjun smiling at him in which he awkwardly returned the smile.

“Great!” Donghyuck said. “Where do you want to eat? Do you have some places in mind?” he asked. Donghyuck heard Renjun humming and was ready to answer before their bus came.

“I don’t, actually,” Renjun suddenly said, to answer Donghyuck’s question. “I don’t feel like eating something heavy tonight,” he continued. There was silence before Renjun said, “Do you want to go to the convenience store? You know, get some ramyun and, I don’t know, kimbap?”

“Yeah, sure. Are there any close to your apartment?” Donghyuck asked. Renjun tried to remember but failed to do so. He shook his head then he heard Donghyuck giggling.

“Well, there’s one close to mine. Do you mind if we go there instead?” Donghyuck asked.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Renjun answered. Donghyuck nodded his head then said, “It’s settled then.”

***

The two walked out from the convenience store with both hands holding the cup with the ramyun in it. A plastic bag was hanging on Donghyuck’s wrist containing the other stuff they bought from the convenience store. The two settled down at the empty table just outside the store.

Renjun stirred his ramyun to check if it was already well-cooked or not. Donghyuck played with his phone while waiting for his ramyun. Renjun looked at Donghyuck who was so focused with his phone and then a lot of stuff suddenly appeared inside his mind making him feel a sudden urge to ask Donghyuck about something.

Donghyuck put his phone down then stirred his ramyun before eating them. He turned to look at Renjun then furrowed at his face. He straightened his position before nudging Renjun’s arm which brought Renjun back to reality. He looked at Donghyuck questioningly before realizing the boy had started eating his ramyun already. Renjun immediately stirred his own then started eating it.

“Injun-ah,” Donghyuck called. Renjun was surprised by the sudden name. He looked at Donghyuck confused, the ramyun still hung loosely in his mouth making Donghyuck chuckle at him. Donghyuck motioned his finger to Renjun’s lips making Renjun immediately slurp the noodles inside.

“Why?” Renjun finally said after struggling to swallow the noodles.

“Nothing,” Donghyuck answered. “You just looked so troubled, so I wanted to ask you if you want to, you know, talk to me about your problems,” he continued while focusing on his ramyun.

“Oh,” murmured Renjun. He glanced at Donghyuck then stared at the sky. There were not many stars there but the sky was pretty clear and Renjun felt kind of calm then. He looked at Donghyuck who was now back to eating his ramyun.

“I was just wondering,” Renjun started, catching Donghyuck’s attention who was munching on a triangle kimbap. “You know how we ended up last time,” Renjun stopped again to examine Donghyuck’s reaction, then continued, “I thought a lot about what happened then because you looked so mad at me that afternoon then the next day Mrs. Choi told us you were moving. I was so shocked, you didn’t even tell me anything. The others started asking me if I knew anything about why you moved all of the sudden,” Renjun took a deep breath.

“I said to them that I don’t know, since the others thought how close we both were so they thought I probably knew the reason behind why you moved in the middle of the school term. I started to think that, you probably wanted to tell me about that that day but couldn’t do so because we were suddenly fighting,” Renjun looked at Donghyuck’s expression.

“I really want to know, Hyuck, why did you get angry at me that day, why did you sound so hurt when you said those things. I know you don’t easily get angry at people, that’s why I was so taken aback by your anger then,” said Renjun. He waited for Donghyuck’s response but the boy was busy playing with his chopsticks. Renjun let out a sigh then nodded.

“It’s fine, you don’t need to tell me the reason if you don’t want to, I was just curious,” Renjun shrugged then started eating his ramyun. 

Donghyuck looked at Renjun and was about to say something before deciding to just finish his food without saying anything. After the two finished, Renjun immediately bid his goodbye to Donghyuck and told Donghyuck it was okay for him to go back alone. Donghyuck then nodded and started walking the other way.

The night sky accompanied Renjun for the rest of the road to his apartment.

***

It was Wednesday and Renjun was on his way to the library with Jaemin to find some books for his assignment that had just been given to them by Miss. Oh. He walked inside and greeted Mrs. Lim, the librarian, and walked to the nearest empty table. He put down his books and his pencil case then started looking.

Since it was about Korean history, Renjun walked to the history section and started looking for any books that contained the information he needed. When Renjun wanted to walk to the other side of the book shelf, he accidentally saw Donghyuck and Jeno sat at the table in the corner.

Donghyuck had his head down on the table and Jeno was busy reading his book before turning to his side and started to move Donghyuck’s hair from his face. Renjun felt his stomach doing something weird and he immediately walked back to his table when he saw Jeno’s affectionate smile towards the sleeping Donghyuck.

Renjun walked back to his table and found that Jaemin had already started doing his assignment. Renjun put the books he found down and took out his notebooks then started doing his own assignment. He tried to make his mind focused on the work at hand but it kept coming back to the scene he just saw earlier. He let out a sigh, catching Jaemin’s attention. Jaemin looked at him weirdly before tapping his pen in front of Renjun to catch his attention.

“Is there something wrong?” Jaemin whispered. Renjun looked at him, contemplating whether he should tell him about what he just saw earlier. Renjun then let out another sigh.

“I just saw Donghyuck and Jeno earlier,” Renjun said. Jaemin still didn’t understand what was the problem with that was but before he got the chance to ask more about it, Donghyuck and Jeno suddenly appeared from behind Renjun. Jaemin stared at Donghyuck in the eyes and then Jeno and at last the hand that was comfortably resting at Donghyuck’s hips. The realization then hit him and he looked at Renjun trying to tell him with eyes that Donghyuck was behind him.

“Hey,” Donghyuck greeted them. Renjun’s body stiffened before turning around to see Donghyuck and Jeno walking to their direction.

Renjun just looked at Donghyuck then nodded his head. Donghyuck looked at him weirdly before stopping in front of their table. He looked at the two curiously before putting out question.

“What are you two doing?” Donghyuck asked.

“Working of course,” Renjun answered, in a way that sounds like he was irritated with Donghyuck’s presence there. “That question should be asked to you both. What are you two doing in the library?” Renjun continued, curious for the answer he might get from either Donghyuck or Jeno.

Jeno was about to answer the question before Donghyuck beat him to it and said, “I was accompanying this big guy right here since he wants to study for our quiz later. He doesn’t want to study in our class since it's really not the right place to study if you want to focus,” Donghyuck shrugged.

Renjun glared Jaemin then back at Donghyuck. He tried to muster some words but failed to do so, hence he tried to send signal for Jaemin to say something so he didn’t need to continue this conversation. Jaemin got the signal and then gulped. He turned his head to Donghyuck and Jeno then tried to form some words inside his mind.

“Well, I hope you two do well on your quiz later,” said Jaemin, earning rolled eyes from Renjun.

Jeno smiled, “Thank you. We might actually need to head back to class now. Come one, Hae!” Jeno tugging on Donghyuck’s arm to drag him out of the library. Donghyuck half heartedly followed Jeno but was able to say goodbye to the two.

“See you later!”

When the two were finally out of sight, Renjun let out a deep sigh making Jaemin look at him with sympathy.

***

April has been a busy month for Renjun and he didn’t even know if he would be able to survive. Also, since the art festival was coming close, Renjun’s practice with Donghyuck become more intense. He also needed to keep an eye on the kids since it was their first time contributing to the club.

He also barely had time with Jaemin during breaks, since the boy suddenly got busy with meetings and occasionally accompanying Jeno for whatever reasons he might have. Renjun seated himself down on the empty table with his tray full of food since the menu for today was his favorite and he won’t, definitely won’t, ever let that chance goes by.

It was his third bite in when Jaemin suddenly sat himself down in front of Renjun with his tray and an uneven breath. Renjun looked at him questioningly, waiting for the poor boy to catch his breath before finally asking him what’s going on.

“Sorry, I got caught up with meeting that I didn’t even realize it was lunchtime already,” Jaemin said while pouting. Renjun shook his head then continued eating his food.

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Jaemin asked, his eyes suddenly looked sad and guilty. A wave of panic suddenly arose inside him.

“No! No, of course not, Na. I know you really are busy these past few days,” Renjun said while smiling, hoping that Jaemin won’t suddenly cry in the middle of the canteen. “I understand and I’m not mad at you, I promise,” Renjun continued.

A small smile spread across Jaemin’s lips, “Okay then,” he said.

Renjun let out a sigh of relief and smiled again at Jaemin who started eating his food. There were dark circles under Jaemin’s eyes. He rarely had them if it was not during exam period, it meant the work he had from student council really tired him.

“Hey,” Renjun called. Jaemin looked up from his food and Renjun immediately chuckled at the view. Jaemin looked like a lost bunny with his big eyes and a mouth full of food.

“Don’t forget to take care of yourself, yeah? Don’t work yourself too much, I can see dark circles under your eyes now, you don’t usually have them, you know?” Renjun said to Jaemin in which the boy nodded at him and gave him a thumbs up.

Silence then took over the both of them. The two ate their food without saying anything and when they finally finished, Renjun was the first one to talk.

“I’ve been seeing you hanging out with Lee Jeno recently, do you have some work to do with him or something?” Renjun asked, kind of catching Jaemin off guard because he suddenly coughed after hearing the question. Renjun immediately gave him water and waited for him to calm down.

“Why did you suddenly ask that?” Jaemin said, looking at Renjun curiously. Renjun just shrugged and motioned Jaemin to answer his question. “Uh, he’s been asking me some stuff about the art festival and he told me he was probably gonna put out a performance too for the festival but since Donghyuck already has his own performance to work for, he asked me,” Jaemin explained. Renjun looked at him then nodded understandingly.

“But, aren’t you a part of the committee for this year's art festival? Aren’t the committee members not allowed to put out a performance?” Renjun suddenly asked.

Jaemin nodded his head, “True, I already told him that too but he seems to just want someone to accompany him while doing his practice, so that’s what I’ve been doing for the past week,” he answered.

Renjun nodded again and said, “Understandable.”

***

It was a Tuesday and the weather felt so warm against the skin, except probably for Renjun who was still using his hoodie or sweater wherever he goes. The warm weather didn’t look like it bothered him that much but the sweat that occasionally dripped down from his forehead said otherwise.

It was the fourth subject for the day but Renjun kept fanning himself due to the heat. Their class’ air conditioner had been turned off since the girls said it was still unnecessary to turn them on. The other didn’t seem to bother the request but Renjun felt otherwise.

He was dying to take off his sweater but didn’t want people to see his soulmate’s name, Donghyuck’s name, written on his wrist. He tried to keep it lowkey to not attract his classmates’ attention but apparently Seojung, who was sitting right beside his table, saw him fanning himself ever since lunch break was over. She kept looking at Renjun’s direction before bending over to Renjun’s side to call him.

“Renjun-ah!” Renjun turned over to Seojung with a questioning look.

“Why do you keep fanning yourself? Take off your sweater if it’s really that hot,” said Seojung. Renjun immediately shook his head and told her he was fine or at least he would be fine.

Seojung then just nodded her head but was still worried over Renjun who was still fanning himself. Renjun gave her a reassuring smile and told her that he was fine. Seojung murmured a small okay before going back to focus on their teacher.

When Renjun still tried to cool himself down, he felt his phone vibrate from his pants’ pocket and made him startled. He took out his phone and let out an annoyed huff when he saw who was the sender.

From : 이동혁

Hey  
_I can’t go to our practice today_  
_Gotta accompany Jeno somewhere_  
_Sorry_  
_I promise I will make it up to you tomorrow_

Renjun sighed then typed his reply fast then put his phone back in his pocket.

***

Renjun walked to the front gate with Jaemin on his side. The two were talking about how the season was changing and the weather felt warmer.

“No meeting today?” Renjun asked. Jaemin shook his head while smiling.

“Nope! Finally, I could have a calm evening for once,” he said while beaming. Renjun just nodded at him.

“You don’t have practice too? I remember you told me you had one during lunchtime?” Jaemin asked, turned his head to Renjun.

“Well, I thought I had one too but then Donghyuck sent me a message saying he can’t come to practice today, he needs to accompany Jeno somewhere he told me,” said Renjun. Jaemin nodded his head then he put his hand on Renjun’s shoulder making him almost fall due to the sudden weight.

“A free evening to us for once,” Jaemin said while smiling. Renjun just smiled before tossing Jaemin’s heavy arm off him.

“Yes, but please don’t put your arms around me, it’s heavy and I’m hot,” said Renjun, making Jaemin pout. He looked at Renjun once before saying, “Take off your sweater then if you really feels so hot.”

“Nope, no can’t do,” said Renjun. “Even if you already know who’s my soulmate is, people will still be able to read his name on my wrist and I don’t want that,” he continued.

“Ohh, protective much,” said Jaemin, resulting in Renjun glaring at him all the way to the bus stop.

***

Renjun was lying down on his couch while watching TV when his phone vibrated from the table across him. He half-heartedly moved from his position to get his phone. He let out a deep sigh when he saw Donghyuck’s name written on his notification bar.

“Why does he keep messaging me,” he murmured.

From : 이동혁

_Dude_  
_Is Jaemin’s full name Na Jaemin?_

Renjun frowned at Donghyuck’s message, it was kinda weird and all of the sudden, he then typed his reply.

“Did you just call me dude?”  
“Also, yes, his full name is Na Jaemin”  
“Why”

Donghyuck read it immediately but it took him five minutes to send Renjun a reply. Renjun opened Donghyuck’s reply then furrowed even more.

_LMAO_  
_World is indeed so small_  
_(sends a meme)_

“What do you mean?”

_Today’s Jeno’s bday_

“So?”

_Chill_  
_I’m not even finished yet_  
_Like what I said, today is Jeno’s bday_  
_And like_  
_You know about all those soulmate stuff right?_  
_Do you want to guess whose name Jeno got?_  
_You probably already guessed by now_

Renjun could somehow feel his face going pale.

“Oh no”  
“Pls don’t tell me what I think is true”

_Oh, it’s definitely true_  
_Jaemin’s full name is literally written on his wrist_  
_And I still can’t stop laughing at him rn_

“It's really Jaemin?”  
“Wait”  
“Why are you laughing?”  
“I thought you were in a relationship with him or something”

Renjun somehow could hear his heart beating so fast that his ears started to fill with buzz. Renjun waited for Donghyuck to reply to his message with a mind full of so many things.

_What?_  
_Me and Jeno?_  
_Lmao Jun, are you high?_  
_Jeno and I are like brothers, I would never like him that way_  
_How can you even come to that conclusion lol_

Renjun felt his face heating up after he read Donghyuck’s reply and started to curse himself mentally that he could come to that thoughts.

“Oh”  
“I just thought because you and him look good together”  
“And also, you were always with him”  
“So”

_Lmao I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this_  
_Why am I always with Jeno?_  
_Did Jaemin ever told you about a boy he defended from the bullies?_  
_That’s Jeno and that happened when I had not transferred yet_  
_Since then Jeno been crushing on Jaemin and also since then_  
_When I got transferred here, I was always with Jeno wherever he goes_  
_Because I don’t want him to be in that situation again_  
_Do you understand that?_

“Oh…”

_Also, you said that I’ve always with Jeno as if you don’t spend every hour with Jaemin_

“Hey!”  
“I don’t know okay!”  
“I didn’t even suspect him having a crush on Jaemin”  
“How good is he at hiding his feelings?”

_Oh, he’s really good, like really really good_  
_He will not open up to someone if he feels like that person is not trusth-worthy enough_

“How did he even trust you?”  
“You are not trust-worthy enough”

_Hey!_  
_It took me a while you know to gain his full trust_

“Really”

_Yeah, he’s not easy to crack I must say_

“Oh, really?”

Mhm  
_We met in Jeju, I think it was on my fifth or sixth year in elementary school_  
_He was a shy kid, well still, but I had a hard time trying to befriend him then_  
_But one day, his parents were late to pick him up and since I always went to school by walking, I accompanied him ‘till his parents come_  
_And since then, he slowly wanted to talk to me and all of that stuff_  
_When we both graduated from middle school, he told me his parents are going to move to Seoul because of work_  
_I was already accepted into one of the best high schools in Jeju then and hearing that, I told my parents I wanted to go to Seoul too and continue my high school year there with Jeno_  
_They declined, so I went to that high school but one day my dad came home with the news that he got transferred to one of his company branches in Seoul_  
_And that’s how I got transferred in the middle of the term last year_

“Wow…”  
“That was a long ass story”

_Lol_  
_Yeah, I know_

“Well, since we come to the topic about the past”  
“I still want an answer from you by the way”

Oops  
_Look at the time!_  
_It’s time to sleep_  
_Good night huang renjun_  
_Mwah_

Renjun let out a sigh at Donghyuck’s attempt on ignoring that topic but chuckled a little when he read his reply.

“Cute,” he murmured

“Night”  
“Hyuckie”

***

Since the day Donghyuck told him about Jeno’s crush and soulmate’s name to him, Renjun had been trying so hard to not let it slip whenever he was with Jaemin. It was a hard thing to do though but luckily he managed and it was May already. Renjun work doubled up ever since May came.

Their music club manager, Mr. Bang, who was a perfectionist kept telling them to make sure every preparation was done perfectly. The kids silently whined behind Mr. Bang’s back but Renjun tried his best to reassure them that everything will be okay and that at the end of the day their hard work would pay off.

Besides being busy with the music club booth, Renjun’s practice time with Donghyuck had also increased. Renjun always tried to make sure they used every time they got to practice. During breaks, after school, even during the weekends. Renjun wanted to make sure that the performance would be flawless.

Jaemin had been really busy too. The both of them rarely saw each other except during class. Renjun was relieved to see that Jaemin kept his words to take care of himself and the dark circles had decreased a lot from under his eyes.

It was lunchtime on a Friday and Renjun had been trying to not freak out because the art festival was literally next week and he felt like he was not ready. He felt like his preparation for the performance wasn’t even close to perfect. However, Yangyang who was with him during lunchtime, since Jaemin couldn’t join them due to another meeting, thought the other way. He reassured him that he would do great.

Yangyang was given a chance to watch Donghyuck and Renjun during practice once and had been telling Renjun that their performance would be lit. Renjun doubted him but Daehwi, the one who played the piano, also said the same. Even Donghyuck himself tried to reassure him that everything would be okay.

“Calm down there, Jun. You did just fine, I swear to god, you freak out too much,” said Donghyuck during one of their practices. Renjun let out a huff but still said okay to Donghyuck.

After lunch break was over, Renjun walked back to his classroom and was met with a mess. Since each class also needed to do booth, their class was now in complete chaos because they haven’t decided what to sell during the festival or divided the jobs.

Renjun walked straight to his table and saw Jaemin sitting there focused on writing in his notebook. Renjun approached him and tapped his shoulder, which startled Jaemin. Renjun asked him what he was doing and Jaemin showed him his notebook.

“A set list?” Renjun handed back his notebook then looked at him in confusion.

“Yep. Since we’re holding a festival, of course we need to make a set list, so that everyone would know when they would perform during the festival,” Jaemin explained.

Renjun just nodded his head and stared at Jaemin who continued writing. It had been 10 minutes since lunch break was over but their teacher had not come yet. Renjun thought, they probably had free period now. He then let out a sigh, catching Jaemin’s attention, who now looked at him questioningly.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” He asked. Renjun pouted then put his hands on the table.

“I’m scared,” Renjun started. Jaemin waited for him to continue while playing with his pen. Renjun let out another sigh before continuing.

“The festival is literally next week and I’m afraid that what I have been preparing is not perfect enough and people would talk bad about our club,” Renjun continued. Jaemin smiled at him then took Renjun’s hand in his, soothing it with his thumb.

“I don’t know about how far your practice and preparation has been but I believe you will do just great! Not to mention how beautiful your voice is and now you will do a duet stage with Donghyuck, another gem in the club,” Jaemin paused. “Don’t worry too much, okay? You will do just great! Believe in yourself just like how you would brag about how great you are in front of Donghyuck during practice,” continued Jaemin, a sly smile spread across his face.

Renjun laughed at Jaemin’s words then nodded his head. He soothed Jaemin’s hands too then let out a sigh.

“You are right, I need to believe in myself just like how I believe how bad Donghyuck’s taste in music are,” the both of them laughed at what Renjun said.

Renjun felt calmer now and grateful that he had Jaemin to keep him grounded whenever his mind leaned more to the negative side than positive.

***

Renjun and Jaemin were walking to their school front gate while talking about what should they eat for dinner. The two then decided to stop by their favorite samgyeopsal restaurant before going to Renjun’s apartment.

Renjun met Donghyuck and Jeno on their way out of school. The two greeted each other by nodding their heads then headed different ways. Renjun and Jaemin waited at their usual bus stop and started talking, trying to catch up over stuff they didn’t get to tell each other during their busy time at school.

“Oh! Jun-ah, do you know that Jeno has been acting really weird recently towards me?” said Jaemin, catching Renjun attention who was counting the cars that had passed by in front of them.

“How weird?” He asked. Jaemin looked at the sky then started to wonder about Jeno’s weird antics recently.

“Well, first of all, he kept waiting for me in front of the student council room during lunch break to remind me to eat or bring me food if I didn’t go to the canteen,” Jaemin started. Renjun looked at Jaemin with his eyes wide and lots of thoughts started showed up inside his mind.

“Then, he would occasionally send me good luck messages ever since we exchanged numbers. Not that I hate those messages but it was just weird how he took the time to send them to me,” Jaemin wondered then smiled at himself.

“Do you think something happened to him?” Jaemin asked Renjun, who was too focused with his thought he didn’t hear what Jaemin has said to him. “Jun?” Jaemin called him.

“Huh? What? Sorry, I sort of daydreamed,” Renjun showed Jaemin his sorry smile. Jaemin just shook his head then repeated his question to Renjun.

“Well, I don’t know about that but why don’t you just ask him yourself? He probably wouldn’t mind telling you why,” answered Renjun. Jaemin looked like he tried to consider Renjun’s advice before their bus came.

“I’ll think about it,” he said before they get on the bus.

“Yeah, you probably should,” murmured Renjun.

***

June came and their school now had more free period than normal due to the art festival coming close and the students busy preparing. Renjun walked to the music club room and already found Donghyuck standing near the window. Renjun walked to the only table inside and put down his notebook and water bottle.

“The school has been so busy these past few days,” Donghyuck said. “Can’t believe the two months has come to an end and we will be standing on that stage tomorrow,” he continued.

Renjun walked to where Donghyuck was standing and saw what he had been observing while waiting for Renjun to come. Down there, in their large school field, the committee for tomorrow’s event was busy walking here and there. Some were busy moving the audio equipment, some were busy talking to the teachers or the technicians, or busy giving water to the others.

“I can’t believe we are going to perform tomorrow,” there was a hint of nervousness in Renjun’s voice and Donghyuck immediately turned his body over to him.

“Here, here, Renjun, we will do just fine, okay? No need to freak out, ‘cause honestly I got enough of them yesterday,” he chuckled, Renjun just glared him before letting out a sigh. “I promise you, we will do great tomorrow,” Donghyuck smiled at him, hoping it would ease the nervous.

When the two were busy looking outside the window, after a short heartfelt moment, the door swung open and in came Daehwi with his uneven breath.

“Sorry, hyung, for being late,” said Daehwi, walking to the piano then seated himself down on the chair. Renjun approached him then tapped his shoulder.

“It’s okay, no need to say sorry, we just arrived too,” said Renjun.

“Hey! I’ve been waiting here for 15 minutes before you came,” Donghyuck said, glaring Renjun. Daehwi chuckled at the two of them then took a deep breath and let it out.

“Okay, I’m fine now! Shall we start?”

***

Their practice ended at fifteen past six. Renjun and Donghyuck bid Daehwi goodbye and told him to be careful on his way home before walking to the bus stop. Their school was still busy even after Donghyuck and Renjun had finished their practice. No wonder though, since the event would be taking place tomorrow, of course the committee would stay late at school.

The warm breeze stroked Renjun’s hair, making it messy. Renjun was too lazy to fix them so he just let it be. The two sat down at the bus stop and waited for their bus to come. When Donghyuck turned his head over to Renjun, he laughed at how messy Renjun’s hair was. He held out his hand then started fixing it, taking Renjun off guard but the boy let Donghyuck fix it.

“Why do you keep using a sweater? Isn’t the weather warm enough to take them off?” asked Donghyuck when he finished fixing Renjun’s hair. Renjun stiffened in his seat and his mind started to form reasons that would sound convincing.

“Just want to?” He blurted out but it sounded more like a question than a statement. Donghyuck looked at him weirdly before dropping the topic because their bus had just come. Renjun let out a sigh of relief at how the bus came at the right time.

They sat in silence for a while before Renjun called Donghyuck. Donghyuck turned his head towards Renjun and waited for him to say something.

“Do you think what we have prepared for the past two months would be enough?” asked Renjun. He looked at Donghyuck expectantly before Donghyuck let out a sigh.

“Of course we will. Renjun, I swear to god, you need to let loose a little. We have been practicing for the whole two months and in that period, our practice has been going perfectly. We will do great tomorrow, okay? Stop overthinking and start believing in yourself,” Donghyuck said. The two didn’t realize but Donghyuck’s hands was unconsciously reaching out to Renjun’s hands and sooth them.

When the bus stopped abruptly and both of them back to reality, Renjun looked at their hands and retracted them immediately. Renjun could feel his face heated and sees Donghyuck’s lips formed a smile from his peripheral view. The silence took over for the rest of the trip and when both of them finally arrived at their bus stop, Renjun just said a small goodbye before walking back to his apartment.

“How did I even get you as my soulmate too?”

***

The next morning, Renjun woke up with an uneasy feeling. He had been awake since five and had been sitting on his bed trying to calm himself down. It was when Jaemin called him that Renjun was finally able to calm his mind and heart for real. Donghyuck also sent him a message, to make sure he had already woken up or not.

Renjun walked inside his bathroom to take a shower and went out already in his school uniform. Their school told them to use their uniforms just like usual but when the school hours were finally over, they should change to their outfit. He didn’t feel like eating breakfast so he just drank a glass of milk and took his vitamins.

When the time said it was seven, Renjun took his bag and his phone then walked out of his apartment building. He plugged in his earphones to his phone then put it in his ears and played their audio recording from yesterday. Right when Renjun had just arrived at the bus stop, his usual bus came and he immediately walked in.

After he scanned his card, Renjun walked to his usual seat and seated himself down, not realizing Donghyuck was behind him. When Donghyuck seated himself down too, Renjun finally realized and took off his left earphone.

“What are you listening to?” Donghyuck asked him.

“Our recording from yesterday,” answered Renjun.

“Oh, can I heard it too?” Renjun just nodded at him then gave him his left earphone and listened to it in silence.

The both of them stayed in silence while listening to their audio recording. Renjun was too nervous to talk meanwhile Donghyuck just wanted to listen to the audio recording. When the bus stopped at their destination, Renjun turned off his audio player and unplugged his earphones. The two walked out from the bus after saying thank you to the driver.

From afar, they could see the banner hanging in front of their school gate. It had a bright yellow colour for the background and black colour for the font, not to mention the amount of animation on it. Renjun grimaced at what he saw.

“I thought it was an art festival, not a summer one. What’s with the bright yellow background?” said Renjun, glaring the obnoxious banner.

“Hey! No need to talk bad about my colour, yellow is pretty you know?” Donghyuck suddenly said, catching Renjun attention from glaring the banner.

“What? Yellow is your colour? Who said that and how did yellow ended up becoming your colour?” said Renjun.

“Yes and I don’t know, Jeno told me so during middle school. He told me that yellow suits my personality well because of my bright aura,” shrugged Donghyuck. Renjun just let out a huff.

“Oh, right! I forgot to ask but did Jeno already tell Jaemin about his soulmate name?” asked Renjun.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Donghyuck, Renjun just nodded before turning his attention back to Donghyuck when he continued his words, “But I remember he told me he wants to confess to Jaemin after this event ends.”

Renjun just nodded his head and bid his goodbye when the two of them arrived inside the school building. Renjun saw a lot of ornaments on the wall to his classroom, he thought, how did the committee finish putting this in one night?

When Renjun walked inside his classroom, it was even more shocking. His classmates were busy preparing the stuff for the class’ booth, it was a mess actually just like usual but it had a little more chattering than usual.

Renjun walked to his table then sat down. Jaemin’s table was empty, it had only Jaemin’s bag, meaning that Jaemin had arrived earlier than Renjun. Renjun took out his phone and his earphones again, plugged them in again then started to listen to their audio recording from yesterday, ignoring all the chaos around him.

***

Renjun had just finished his lunch and was heading back to his classroom. He met with several people on his way and talked briefly with them. When he was about to arrive at his classroom, he saw Heejin walking his way and waved her hand at him. Renjun smiled at her and she finally standing in front of him.

“Hey! I just saw Jaemin when I was on my way to the toilets, he told me about the set list for later and the music club will be up after two classes of first year. Probably around six or seven tonight,” said Heejin.

“Ohh, thank you Heejin for telling me this. Jaemin didn’t even bother to inform me in advance, I thought he was supposed to tell all the performers about the order, no?” Heejin chuckled at what Renjun said and nodded.

“True, true but he probably forgot to tell you since, you know, how busy he is,” said Heejin, smiling.

“It still doesn’t justify his behaviour though,” said Renjun while laughing. Heejin laughed with him before excusing herself since she was actually needed at the field then.

Renjun continued his steps but then he was met with Donghyuck who was standing while leaning against the wall beside his classroom. Renjun approached him and Donghyuck immediately looked up. His lips formed a smile when he saw who was standing in front of him.

“Hey, where have you been?” asked Donghyuck, straightened his body then looked at Renjun.

“From the canteen, then I met Heejin while on my way to class and now I meet you,” said Renjun. “What do you want?” He continued.

Donghyuck made a hurtful expression while clenching his shirt where his heart was, “Ouch, that hurts,” he pouted. Renjun rolled his eyes but was still waiting for Donghyuck to continue his words.

“I was just asking if you wanted to go to the rooftop, since from lunch break until school hour is over, all classes are free periods,” said Donghyuck.

“Are you sure?” Renjun asked while looking at Donghyuck suspiciously. It was Donghyuck now who rolled his eyes.

“From the teacher, duh,” he said.

“Really? I thought all the teachers hated you,” said Renjun.

“I’m not that bad, you know, there are still teachers who like me because of my true personality,” said Donghyuck while putting on emphasize at the word true. Renjun just shook his head then pointed his hands forwards.

“Well, if it’s true, we might go now,” said Renjun.

“Alright!”

***

The warm breeze brushed against their skin right after Donghyuck opened the door to the rooftop. Renjun walked to the edge of the building and looked over the area around their school. The muffled voice under them came from the busy field. Renjun closed his eyes and let the wind warm his body. He smiled then opened his eyes and turned his body to see where Donghyuck was standing.

The boy was leaning against the wall right beside the door with his hands crossed over his chest. He smiled when he saw Renjun looked at him. Renjun turned his head back to the view in front of him before walking to where Donghyuck was standing.

“Why are you standing there?” asked Renjun.

Donghyuck shrugged then said, “I just wanted to take you here so that the view could ease your mind,” he smiled. Renjun’s eyes went wide then he turned his head to the side when he felt his face heating up.

Renjun looked down and realized then that Donghyuck was wearing a gray sweater today. He looked at Donghyuck up and down which made Donghyuck look at him weirdly.

“What are you looking at?” He asked. Renjun shot his eyes up and stared Donghyuck in the eyes.

“Why are you wearing a sweater today?” asked Renjun, not tearing his eyes from Donghyuck.

“Just wanted to,” he said, not looking at Renjun. Renjun furrowed his eyebrows before dropping the topic.

He moved to stand beside Donghyuck then leaned back against the wall. He closed his eyes then took a deep breath and let it out. Renjun opened his eyes and smiled to himself. The warm breeze and the beautiful view somehow eased his nerves. He felt Donghyuck moving from his standing position and sat down. Donghyuck tugged on Renjun’s sweater and told him to sit down too.

“What are you--” before Renjun could finish his sentence, Donghyuck laid his head on Renjun’s lap and closed his eyes. “Oh,” murmured Renjun.

“Let’s stay like this for a while, yeah? We still have lots of time before the festival starts,” said Donghyuck in a low tone, crossed his hands and started drifting to dreamland.

Renjun let out a sigh but let Donghyuck sleep on his lap. He put his hands beside Donghyuck’s head then looked in front of him. The sun was shining so bright up there and the breeze felt like a mix of cold and warm but more on the warm side. Renjun looked down at Donghyuck and slowly touched his hair.

Renjun just realized that Donghyuck’s hair had a little brown colour in it. He smiled then looked at Donghyuck’s face, he saw Donghyuck’s moles and smiled at himself. He had always liked Donghyuck’s moles, it made him look even more beautiful. Renjun realized that Donghyuck was not wearing their school uniform, instead he was wearing a white shirt underneath his sweater, he chuckled.

“This kid really doesn’t care about rules, does he?” murmured Renjun.

They stayed in that position for god knows how long but when Renjun started to feel his legs numb, he shook Donghyuck’s body slowly while saying his name. When the boy didn’t budge, Renjun started to shake his body a little bit stronger and stopped when he heard Donghyuck whine.

“Why did you wake me up? I’m still sleepy,” said Donghyuck. Renjun let out a huff then shook Donghyuck’s body once more.

“Wake up! My legs are numb right now, I want you to move,” said Renjun.

Donghyuck groaned but did what Renjun told him. Donghyuck leaned against him and yawned. Renjun started massaging his legs while grumbling. He suddenly felt a weight on his left shoulder and saw Donghyuck had fallen asleep again.

“Are you really that tired?” said Renjun. He just let Donghyuck be and continued massaging his legs. Renjun let out a yawn and sighed. He put his head on top of Donghyuck and closed his eyes, hoping he would wake up before their fest started so that he still had time to prepare.

***

“Renjun-ah! Renjun-ah! Wake up! It’s past four already!” Donghyuck shook Renjun’s body, trying to wake the poor boy who slept so soundly beside him. Renjun groaned and opened his eyes.

“What? What time is it now?” Asked Renjun in his hoarse voice.

“It’s thirty-five minute past four. Come on, we need to get ready,” said Donghyuck.

Renjun stretched his arms then closed his mouth when a yawn left his mouth. He tried to adjust the lightning in front of him and realize the sun has now moved to the other side. He sighed then rose from his position. He let out another sigh then nodded at Donghyuck who was already opening the door to downstairs.

When they got to their class floor, the two said goodbye after agreeing to meet at the music club room. Renjun walked into his classroom having less than five people inside. He asked Chaewon where the others were and she told him they were currently preparing for the booth. Renjun just nodded then proceeded to his table and took his bag with him. He told his classmates to watch his performance later then walked out of the room.

On the way to the music club room, Renjun met Daehwi who just came out from the library. The two then walked together to the music club room while talking. Daehwi told Renjun that he was nervous so decided to go to the library to ease the nerves. Renjun told Daehwi that he was nervous too but he believed that they would do great tonight. Daehwi smiled at him then nodded.

Renjun opened the music club room door and was met with the other kids circling in the middle of the room. Renjun greeted them then asked them what they were doing there.

“We were nervous for your performance later, sunbae-nim! That’s why we came here to give you strength,” said Jinsol while smiling. Renjun laughed at them.

“And now you all are the ones who are nervous for me,” he smiled. “It’s okay, I’m fine now and I believe we will do just great later,” said Renjun while grabbing Daehwi by his shoulder.

All of them turned their attention when they heard the door swung open and saw Donghyuck walking in looking confused.

“What are you all doing here in a circle?” He asked.

“We want to give sunbaes the strength they deserve!” Said Yuri in a cheerful tone.

“Ohh, I thought you were doing a cult for a second.”

“Lee Haechan!”

Donghyuck just grinned at Renjun then proceeded to put his stuff down on the room’s stage. He seated himself down and looked at the kids who were looking at him curiously.

Donghyuck furrowed his eyebrows then said, “What are you looking at?” before playing with his phone.

“Don’t mind him,” said Renjun.

Renjun then told the kids to get ready for the event later and make sure the booth was in perfect condition. After the kids left and there was only Renjun, Donghyuck and Daehwi inside, Renjun finally let out a sigh.

“Now I’m nervous again,” he said. Daehwi looked at him sympathetically.

“You were doing just fine then, why did the nervousness suddenly come back?” asked Donghyuck.

“I don’t know,” shrugged Renjun. “Probably the expectation by people that make me nervous,” he said.

Donghyuck let out a sigh then approached Renjun who was sitting on the piano’s chair. He crouched down and held Renjun’s hands in his.

“Don’t think about what people expect from you. You were doing just fine and I believe you will do great later. No need to pressure yourself into fulfilling other people's expectations, yeah?” said Donghyuck. Renjun huffed but then nodded at him. Donghyuck smiled then walked back to where he was seated.

Daehwi who was seated not too far from Donghyuck and Renjun looked at them in awe, “Why did it feel like a drama?” he murmured.

The three then did one last practice before getting ready for the festival. After they finished their last practice, all of them started getting ready for the event. They agreed with a soft themed outfit for their performance and so, Renjun brought a warm-coloured sweater, it was cream, white tshirt and skinny jeans.

He also brought his glasses, when Donghyuck asked him as to why he needed glasses, he just said that it was for the fashion. Donghyuck just rolled his eyes meanwhile Daehwi just laughed at their antics. They continued to get ready and when the three of them finally finished, they took each other’s photos and take one as a group. Renjun smiled at the photos they just took then looked at Donghyuck who was busy talking to Daehwi.

Renjun contemplated a lot before finally deciding to call Donghyuck over. Donghyuck walked over to him with a confused face and asked Renjun what was wrong.

“Let’s take a picture together,” said Renjun. Donghyuck looked at him, amused, before chuckling.

“Why didn’t say so?” He said while smiling. Renjun just grinned then gave Donghyuck his phone for him to hold. The two then posed several times before stopping because Daehwi called them and saw Felix standing at the door. Renjun approached him and asked if he wanted anything.

“No, I just wanted to check if you were already finished getting ready. Let’s go out, the event is going to start soon,” said Felix then vanished from their view.

Renjun told them to tidy up before walking out of the room. The music from the school field could be heard from where they were standing and the three started to walk to the field. Daehwi excused himself when one of his classmates called him, leaving Donghyuck and Renjun alone. The two walked to where the crowd was and was shocked at how crowded the field was.

“Wow,” said Renjun.

“Yeah, wow,” said Donghyuck while looking at Renjun. Renjun turned his head to Donghyuck and saw Donghyuck staring at him.

“Are we really going to perform in front of these people? I’m actually nervous now,” said Renjun, clutching onto his shirt. Donghyuck chuckled at him.

“Calm down, let’s just enjoy this before we need to get on to that stage and perform,” said Donghyuck, smiling.

The two then walked to where the booths were located and started looking around. There were so many things that were selling this year and Renjun couldn’t stop himself from being amazed at how creative the first years were. Renjun got himself an ice cream from one of the booths and frowned at the taste.

“I didn’t know this is how a pumpkin ice cream would taste like,” said Renjun. Donghyuck laughed at him but tasted the ice cream and hummed.

“It’s actually quite nice though,” said Donghyuck, resulting in Renjun looking at him with disgust.

“Can’t believe your taste is this low,” Renjun said making Donghyuck chuckle.

“I don’t know, probably because all the nice things are already taken by you,” said Donghyuck.

Renjun looked at him in disbelief before turning his face the other way when he felt his face heating up. Donghyuck just smiled at him. The two continued walking around the booths and stopped once or twice when something caught their attention. Both of them laughed so much and looked more relaxed than before. Renjun stopped when he saw Yangyang and waved his hand at him. Yangyang approached them and gave Donghyuck a bro fist.

“I can’t wait for your stage later,” he said while beaming.

“Don’t put too much hope in us, it might not actually be close to what you were expecting,” said Renjun, smiled.

“Eyy, what do you mean, I literally saw you guys practicing the other day and you two are good _good_ ,” said Yangyang emphasizing at the word good twice.

“Don’t listen to him, Yang, he’s just nervous for later,” said Donghyuck while putting his arm around Yangyang’s shoulder. Renjun glared them before changing the topic.

“What kind of booth does your class have, Yang?” asked Renjun. Yangyang put his attention back on Renjun after Donghyuck was busy whispering something in his ear.

“Oh, it’s something different from most of the classes,” answered Yangyang.

“Oh? What is it?” asked Renjun with a tint of curiosity.

“It’s a photobooth. It took a lot of convincing to the student council though to let my class open them,” said Yangyang. Renjun beamed at the word photo.

“Can we take a look at it?” He asked again.

“Sure sure, come,” said Yangyang.

The two followed Yangyang to where his class’ booth was at. When Renjun saw the banner hanging in front of the booth, his eyes glistened. He walked closer to the booth and took a look at everything. He then turned his body to Yangyang, who was again busy talking to Donghyuck, and called him.

“Can I take a photo here, Yang?” asked Renjun.

Yangyang looked at him weirdly before answering, “Of course you can, isn’t that what photobooths are supposed to be?” he said while smiling.

Renjun then filled in the form before walking the booth. Right when he stepped his foot inside, he peeked outside and called for Donghyuck.

“Hyuck! Come in! I filled in your form too and now you gotta take the picture with me,” said Renjun, beaming. Donghyuck looked at Yangyang in confusion before approaching Renjun who looked like an excited kid at a playground.

The two started to take several photos. Renjun thought about what kind of pose they would do before the last photo was taken but before he got to do them, the timer has started and he felt something on his cheek. The click sound signalled that the photos had been taken and Renjun immediately looked at his side and saw Donghyuck looking up front, smiling.

Donghyuck walked out first then Renjun followed slowly behind him. Renjun felt like his mind was in another world that Chani had to call him several times before Renjun’s ears caught it. Renjun turned around and he saw Chani looking at him with a surrendered look before giving him his photoset. Renjun apologized at him before walking towards where Donghyuck and Yangyang were standing.

“How’s the outcome like? Is it good?” Asked Yangyang and Renjun ignored him, still busy in his own world. Yangyang snatched the photoset and looked proud of himself but when his eyes darted towards the last photo, his eyes went big.

“Oh! What a wonderful photoset,” he suddenly said catching the two attention.

Renjun immediately snatched back the photoset and a sly smile spread across Yangyang’s lips but the boy didn’t say anything, instead he tapped on Donghyuck’s shoulder twice before walking away from the both of them. Donghyuck looked at Yangyang before turning his eyes back to Renjun.

“Do you want to go backstage?” asked Donghyuck.

“Yes,” said Renjun then started walking, leaving Donghyuck behind.

“Is it really that shocking to him?”

***

It was a few minutes before their performance and Donghyuck and Renjun had already gotten themselves ready behind the stage. The two looked so nervous, not to mention Daehwi who kept shaking his hands in hopes it would not suddenly go stiff on the stage. Renjun tried to loosen himself meanwhile Donghyuck just looked around.

“Five minutes,” said one of the staff, Hyeyeon, Renjun believed, to them.

Renjun could feel his heart beating faster and he started shaking his hands too. Renjun’s movement caught Donghyuck’s eyes and he walked to where Renjun was standing and held his hand, soothed it with his thumb.

“Calm down, you will do just fine,” said Donghyuck. Renjun stiffened for a second before relaxing in Donghyuck’s touch. The two stayed in that position before Hyeyeon came back to tell them to get ready to get on the stage.

Renjun let out a sigh then looked at his side and saw Donghyuck smiling at him while mouthing ‘it’s okay’ to him. Renjun returned the smile then looked at Daehwi who was smiling at him too. He nodded at both of them before walking onto the stage when Hyeyeon gave them the sign.

The lights were still turned off but Renjun could see the crowd in front of him. He looked at his side and saw that Donghyuck looked stunned at the crowd before turning his head to Renjun. Renjun gave him a smile, turned his head to Daehwi and gave him a smile too. He heard the staff in front of them gave them another sign then Daehwi started playing the piano.

[Donghyuck]  
난 너를 원망해  
_I resent you_  
또 너와의 시간을 미워해  
_I hate the times I had with you_  
너를 잃어버린 난  
_After I lost you_  
모든 게 무의미해  
_Everything became meaningless_

[Donghyuck]  
그리워하지 않아 난  
_I don’t long for you_  
네가 보고 싶은 게 아냐 난  
_I don’t miss you_  
내게 쥐여준 너의 사랑 You  
_Your love that you gave to me (You)_  
기억해내고 싶지 않아 Oh  
_I don’t want to remember it_

[Donghyuck]  
Really I loved you  
너무 사랑했으니까 그런 거야  
_It’s because I loved you so much_  
잊고 싶어도 잊지 못하니까  
_Because I want to forget you but I can’t_  
그래서 널 잊고 싶은 거야  
_That’s why I want to forget you_

[Donghyuck]  
진심으로 I loved you  
_Really, I loved you_  
널 사랑했던 만큼 더 힘든 거야  
_That’s how much harder it is_  
미워하고 싶어도  
_I want to hate you_  
하지 못할 너라서 더 미운 거야  
_But I can’t so I hate you even more_

[Interlude]

[Renjun]  
알아  
_I know_  
지금 내 말이 정말  
_I know what I’m saying right now_  
바보 같아 보인다 거  
_Is really stupid_  
말도 안 되는 거  
_That it doesn’t even make sense_  
I know  
I know

[Renjun]  
네가 날 떠나가 버린  
_After you left me_  
그 순간부터  
_From that moment_  
내 세상은 이미  
_My world_  
멈춰버린 걸  
_Had already stopped_  
끝나버린 걸  
_It had already ended_  
Oh

[Renjun]  
Really I loved you  
너무 사랑했으니까 그런 거야  
_It’s because I loved you so much_  
잊고 싶어도 잊지 못하니까  
_Because I want to forget you but I can’t_  
그래서 널 잊고 싶은 거야  
_That’s why I want to forget you_

[Renjun]  
진심으로 I loved you  
_Really, I loved you_  
널 사랑했던 만큼 더 힘든 거야  
_That’s how much harder it is_  
미워하고 싶어도  
_I want to hate you_  
하지 못할 너라서 더 미운 거야  
_But I can’t so I hate you even more_

[Renjun]  
사실은 내가  
_To be honest_  
아무리 너를  
_No matter how much I try_  
지워보려 해도  
_To erase you_  
못한다는 걸 알아 yeah  
_I know I can’t, yeah_

[Donghyuck]  
사실은 네가  
_To be honest_  
나에게 있어  
_I know that to me_  
잊혀지지 않을  
_You’re someone_  
사람이란 걸 말야  
_Who I just can’t forget_

[Donghyuck] Loved you (Renjun: Loved you)

[Donghyuck]  
잊고 싶어도 잊지 못하니까 (Renjun: 못하니까)  
_Because I want to forget you but I can’t (I can’t)_  
그래서 널 잊고 싶은 거야  
_That’s why I want to forget you_

[Donghyuck] 진심으로 I loved you (Renjun: Loved you)  
_Really, I loved you_  
[Donghyuck] 널 사랑했던 만큼 더 힘든 거야  
_That’s how much harder it is_  
[Renjun] 미워하고 싶어도 하지 못할 (Donghyuck: 하지 못할)  
_I want to hate you_  
[Donghyuck & Renjun] 너라서 더 미운 거야  
_But I can’t so I hate you even more_

The crowd that once went silent when the two of them performed suddenly clapped so loud that Renjun thought his ears were gonna explode. Renjun looked at Donghyuck and smiled so big, Donghyuck returned the smile then Daehwi joined them to give the crowd one last bow before going down the stage.

“Renjun-ah!” Jaemin throw his body to Renjun, making Renjun almost lost his balance, and hugged him so tight Renjun had to tap him to remind Jaemin that Renjun still needed oxygen to breathe. When Jaemin let go off the hug, there were already tears in his eyes.

“Oh my god, Nana, what happened?” Asked Renjun, shocked to see how his best friend looked like.

“What do you mean what happened? Your stage, oh my god, Renjun, your stage is so beautiful!” Screamed Jaemin then hugged Renjun one more time before letting go of him for real.

“You talked to me about how nervous you were for the performance, you were afraid people wouldn’t like them, on god Huang Renjun! Your stage was so amazing! It was so beautiful and really well prepared. I don’t know why you acted so insecure over your stage when it was really that beautiful,” said Jaemin. His eyes were so full of love and pride while looking at Renjun.

“You praised me too much, Nana, there are Donghyuck and Daehwi too behind this amazing stage. You should say that, too, to them, they deserve it,” said Renjun, smiling. Jaemin immediately turned his body to start looking for Donghyuck. When he spotted where Donghyuck was standing, Jaemin approached him then hugged him. It caught Donghyuck off guard but when he saw who was hugging him and saw Renjun smiling apologetically at him, he let out a sigh.

“Why are you hugging me? I thought you hate me for leaving Renjun years ago,” teased Donghyuck making Jaemin hit him hard on his arm.

“If you keep up that act, I won’t give my blessing to you,” said Jaemin, trying to sound as threatening as he possibly could. Donghyuck just chuckled at him then nodded his head to Renjun who were approaching them.

“What are you two talking about?” Asked Renjun when he stood beside Jaemin.

“Nothing, I was just about to say that his stage was amazing and beautiful,” said Jaemin, putting emphasis on the words amazing and beautiful, making Donghyuck laugh at him.

“Yeah yeah, thank you, Na,” said Donghyuck, giving Jaemin his most charming smile when Jaemin walked away from them.

“Why is he like that?” asked Renjun, confused at Jaemin’s act.

“Don’t mind him, he just hit puberty this year,” said Donghyuck, earning him a slap from Renjun. Renjun glared at him before turning his head back to the front after moving to Donghyuck’s side.

“Do you want to go to the rooftop?” asked Donghyuck. Renjun looked like he was considering whether to accept Donghyuck’s offer or not but ended up saying yes. When the two of them was about to start walking out from the school field, Renjun’s classmates called him to come over. Renjun turned his head to Donghyuck as if he was asking permission to him.

“We could go later. I might need to find my classmates too,” said Donghyuck. Renjun just nodded and walked to where his classmates were meanwhile Donghyuck started trying to find where his classmates were.

***

The event ended at fifteen past nine but the school was still crowded with the students cleaning up the area and the teachers were making sure the students didn't do anything dangerous.

Renjun's class just ended cleaning their booth and was preparing to go home when Renjun saw Jaemin walking to him with his face as red as a tomato. Renjun frowned at him but before he even got to ask a question, Jaemin looked at him dead in the eyes and smiled so big.

"Okay, now you’re freaking me out. Did something happen? Your face is red," said Renjun. Jaemin touched his face then smiled again.

"Jeno just confessed to me," said Jaemin. Renjun's eyes went big at what Jaemin just said.

"Really? He did?" asked Renjun. Jaemin looked at him then nodded.

"He said he has been crushing on me since our first year then he showed me his wrist and it had my name on it," Jaemin paused. "Oh my god, Jun! What if I don’t get his name as my soulmate?" Jaemin freaked out. Jaemin looked at Renjun with horror in his eyes.

"Hey hey, calm down. You still have a few months left before your birthday comes. You could just hang out with him once in awhile, as friends of course,” said Renjun.

Jaemin nodded, “You are right--”

“Of course I am,” Renjun grinned when Jaemin glared him for cutting his words.

“We could just start as friends and see what we could do once I got my soulmate’s name too,” said Jaemin. He suddenly looked at the rectangle in his left wrist. “But I still need to wait for another two months,” Jaemin whined then looked at Renjun while pouting.

“You will be okay beside you’ve been spending a lot of time with Jeno recently, I believe he will be okay with whatever decision you’ll make,” Renjun tried to reassure him. Jaemin faked a sniff then nodded his head. He was about to say something when Renjun’s phone rang from his pocket.

“Hello?”

 _“Where are you? I’m already at the rooftop,”_ said Donghyuck.

“Wait a minute, I’ll be there. I need to calm Jaemin first,” said Renjun, looked at a confused Jaemin.

 _“Okay, be fast,”_ said Donghyuck then hung up. Renjun looked at his phone, frowning then back to Jaemin who was still confused.

“It’s Donghyuck, he told me to meet him at the rooftop,” said Renjun. Jaemin suddenly beamed.

“Oh! If that’s the case, you should go now! I’ll get going then,” said Jaemin suddenly. Renjun looked at him weirdly before walking to the rooftop.

The cold night breeze brushed against Renjun skin right when he opened the door to the rooftop. He saw Donghyuck was standing close to the edge, looking down to whatever he was looking at. Renjun closed the door then walked to where Donghyuck was standing. When he was close enough, he realizes that Donghyuck only used his shirt, which was a short sleeve.

“Why didn’t you wear your sweater?” asked Renjun, when he was standing next to Donghyuck. Donghyuck turned his head for a second to Renjun before looking up front again.

“Did you know, there are about one hundred thousand people per day who get their soulmate’s name from everywhere around the world?” asked Donghyuck. Renjun turned his head to Donghyuck with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Uh, no? Why?” said Renjun. Donghyuck smiled then looked down, at the school field.

“Do you also know that there are people who, when they get their soulmate’s name, struggle to find their other half?” said Donghyuck. His eyes looked far beyond the night sky but Renjun didn’t answer this time, he let Donghyuck say everything he wanted to say.

“But of course, there are also those that have it easy by having their soulmate as, you say, friends perhaps,” he continued. Donghyuck then turned his body to face Renjun, which startled Renjun, but Renjun stayed still and waited for Donghyuck’s next words. “And you,” he suddenly said. “You, out of all people, why didn’t you tell me that you got my name as your soulmate?” said Donghyuck. Renjun’s eyes went wide and his heart started beating so fast he thought it was going to come out of his body.

“W-what? How did you know?” asked Renjun, his breath was uneven from the sudden nerve coming.

Donghyuck shrugged, “Easy, you are sloppy, you let your guard down once and I accidentally got a glimpse of my name on your wrist during one of our practices. It was unconscious I believe, we were talking about which part we should practice more and you suddenly rolled up your sweater sleeves and that’s how I got to see your wrist.”

“I thought you were sick or something when you kept coming to school wearing either a sweater or a hoodie but it was actually to hide the mark,” said Donghyuck. “I asked Jaemin later that night and he actually didn’t want to tell me the truth but eventually gave in because he told me he actually wants you to tell me right after you got the mark, but you didn’t,” he continued.

Renjun’s body stiffened at the sudden reveal but he can’t defend himself because that was the truth. He looked down and his eyes quickly darted to his right wrist, where the mark was. He could see from his peripheral view that Donghyuck looked back to the front and sighed.

“I’m not mad at you, by the way, I thought it was normal since we ended on the wrong foot last time and of course you don’t want your supposed enemy know about them being your soulmate,” said Donghyuck. Donghyuck turned his body back to Renjun and touch Renjun’s chin so that he would see Renjun in the eyes.

Donghyuck dropped his hands next to his body before holding out his left arm. Renjun looked at him in confusion but then something hit him when he saw that Donghyuck was smiling at him. Renjun’s eyes went wide and he looked at Donghyuck’s arm.

“No, you didn’t,” murmured Renjun.

“Oh yeah I did,” a grin appeared on Donghyuck’s lips. He turned his left arm so that the bottom part would be up and he couldn’t hide his laugh when he sees Renjun’s reaction.

“Looks like we will spend the rest of our lives together now,” teased Donghyuck. Renjun glared him then looked back at his wrist.

“When did you get them?” asked Renjun.

“On my birthday of course,” said Donghyuck while rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, I know, but when?” said Renjun, looked at Donghyuck in the eyes.

“Did you forgot my birthday already? Eh wait, of course you did, we were so busy that day you didn’t even ask about my weird act,” said Donghyuck.

“What?” Renjun looked at Donghyuck in confusion then Donghyuck looked at him back and sighed.

“Yesterday, duh? My birthday was literally yesterday,” said Donghyuck, a tint of disappointment was clear in his voice.

“Oh,” murmured Renjun.

“Yeah, oh,” said Donghyuck, suddenly. Renjun looked at him in the eyes then smiled apologetically.

“Sorry,” he said. Donghyuck shrugged.

“Nah, that doesn’t matter. What matters now, I have all the time in my life to annoy you everyday,” said Donghyuck, grinning ear to ear. Renjun swore he could actually see what was inside Donghyuck’s mind at that moment. Renjun let out a sigh.

“I can’t believe out of all people, I actually got you as my soulmate,” said Renjun. 

Donghyuck turned his head to Renjun then said, “Oh, believe me, my reaction yesterday when I woke up and saw your name written on my wrist, I almost had a breakdown in my room,” he grinned.

“How could I survive your annoying ass everyday if this is how you usually act in school,” groaned Renjun. Donghyuck laughed at him then he turned his body to face Renjun and smiled at him. It was a different one, Renjun believe, a sincere one.

“Believe me, you will be the only one who could tame me when I get crazy, not even Jeno could do that when I’m in my crazy phase,” said Donghyuck. “We will be the best couple the world will ever have and god would be thankful for putting us together,” he continued, grinning.

Renjun felt Donghyuck was getting closer to him and suddenly he felt Donghyuck’s hands on his waist. His eyes went wide but he didn’t say anything. He looked at Donghyuck in the eyes and when Renjun felt that Donghyuck’s face was drawing closer, Renjun closed his eyes and something plump clashed against his lips.

It was only a peck, a short one even. When Donghyuck distanced his face from Renjun’s face, his lips formed a smile then he kissed Renjun’s forehead. Donghyuck looked at Renjun’s eyes then hugged him.

“Wow, can’t believe I was finally able to do what I’ve always wanted to do to you since kindergarten.”

“What?”

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> If you have arrived at this note, I want to thank whoever ends up reading this fic. I'm still lacking in a lot areas since this is my first time writing a story in full english but I'm really trying my best. Also, I know there would be plot holes and everything and for that I'm truly sorry. I also wanted to thank my lovely beta for helping me, dealing with my stupidity and sticking with me for the past four months, she's really the greatest y'all I love her so much. I really feel bad for her for having such a bad writer like me though lol. Anyways! I hope you do enjoy reading this fic and don't forget to leave any suggestion or like anything in the comment section. Lots of love~


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